


Off To The Races

by exohousewarming, huangjinguo



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M, Organized Crime, Shady Businesses, mafia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-12
Updated: 2017-10-12
Packaged: 2019-01-16 11:19:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 34,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12341643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exohousewarming/pseuds/exohousewarming, https://archiveofourown.org/users/huangjinguo/pseuds/huangjinguo
Summary: Prompt number:252Side Pairings (if any):noneWarnings:sexual content, organized crime, violence, explicit language, mentions of prostitution/rape/assault/murderSummary:Triad boss Yifan takes a liking to Yixing who works at one of the bars in his operating area. When Yixing loses his home and his boss Sun Honglei can’t come up with the money he owes Yifan, Yifan takes Yixing with him - the younger one expects a lot, like rape, and pain, and torture, but cooking and lazy evenings on the couch were clearly not up his radar. Things start to get complicated when Yixing finds himself tangled up in the business Yifan’s running.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **Author Note:** Huge apology to the prompter. I’m 99% sure who you are and I’m 99% sure you had something entirely different in mind when you left the prompt. Too bad this thing has fallen into my claws and I kind of went overboard with everything. Whoops. I don’t think it has enough domestic elements and it’s partly cracky at some points, but like I said, I went overboard and I’m sorry (I tried though). I also blame Lana Del Rey’s discography for this. I still hope it’s somewhat enjoyable. It’s poorly beta’d and edited because real life happens and things have gotten crazy around me so there was barely any time to do so.

Part I

He's back again. Yixing can't see his face, but he feels his presence, and he feels his gaze lingering on him as he takes a tray filled with drinks. While he carries the order over to the designated table, he skillfully dodges a few other people roaming around, and places the drinks with a practiced smile in front of the customers. Everything seems normal - it’s a regular Saturday night and people just want to get drunk after a hard week of work. But in the back of his brain, he's got this little voice telling him over and over again:

_He's watching._

Yixing doesn't know who he exactly is. He only knows that he's started to come over frequently a few weeks ago. When he's asked his boss about him, Sun Honglei would only shy away and tell him that he's a rather rich guy and should be treated as a VIP. He doesn't know his name, his age, or his occupation, but whoever he is, his boss seems to fear him.

When he walks back to the bar, he gets another tray put onto the counter for him to take. Yixing sees one Gin Tonic, one Mojito, and one Bloody Mary.

"What table?" He asks Honglei, a guy in his late forties who's been owning this bar for over ten years now.

Yixing started to work for him last semester to pay the rent for his apartment and the study fees. Over the time, he became one of Sun Honglei’s favorite employees because Yixing lurs the most customers into the establishment - nobody can resist his dimpled smiles and bright laughter.

"Twenty-one," his boss answers and Yixing whimpers, but the music and the noise of the semi-drunk conversations swallow the sound escaping his throat.

"Sorry, Yixing," he adds. "He's asked to be served by you. I don't want to piss him off."

"Why me?"

"I don't know. Don't ask. Just do your job. He's giving generous tips, so that's a plus."

Yixing sighs and gives up. With a last deep breath, he takes the serving tray off the counter and strides over to table 21, where their new regular customer is lounging around with two of his friends. They all seem to be in the same age group, and all of them are extremely handsome. Their table is a little separated from the rest and way too big for just the three of them. Table 21 is usually reserved for bigger groups that celebrate birthdays and want a little privacy.

"Here's your order," Yixing says in his happy-go-round-waiter voice that he has perfected over the months. "We've got... one Bloody Mary..."

The guy on the left lift his hand. He's got very soft features and a bright smile. He's probably one of those guys who look way younger than they actually are, and probably won't age until their late forties. Yixing places the drink in front of him.

"Then there's the Mojito..."

The man on the left nods and taps the table. His hair is dyed blond, but the black of his original color is already showing at his hairline. His prominent nose paired with sharp eyes make him thrillingly handsome.

"That leaves us with the Gin Tonic for you," Yixing concludes and turns to _him_.

The tall man with pitch black hair falling into a sharp looking face. Dark eyes lock with Yixing's and his lips curl into a faint smile when Yixing places the drink in front of him onto a napkin. He exhales the breath of a cigarette, then he says in a low voice:

"Thank you."

"Anytime."

When Yixing is about to take his leave, the man calls him back:

"What do you want if I ask you to serve us the whole evening?"

Yixing bats his eyelashes in confusion and then asks:

"Come again, Mister?"

He puts his cigarette between his lips, grabs the wallet on the table in front of him and pulls out a few hundred Yuan bills.

"Would five hundred be enough?"

"Enough for _what_?"

The other two snort at Yixing's inability to follow their friend's intention.

"He's not the brightest..." the Bloody Mary guy chuckles.

"Lu Han, shut your mouth," the man in the middle says, then turns to Yixing again. "There's been another girl serving us and I don't want her. I want you to serve us. I know that you guys have fixed tables but please just switch one number with her."

Without any further explanation, he hands over the five hundred Yuan and Yixing is so confused about the horrendous amount, he can't move for a second. This guy must be absolutely bonkers.

"Umm... sure... I'll... um... I'll switch tables with her," he then finally says, because five hundred Yuan just for that seems to be the easiest made money in the world.

When he takes the bills, the other one cracks a smile.

"Great! We'll be having a few more friends coming over, just so you know."

"I should be able to handle it, Mister…?"

"Wu. Wu Yifan."

Yixing puts the money into the back pocket of his black pants and nods.

"I'll make sure to serve you and your friends well, Mr. Wu."

"What should I call you, handsome?"

Yixing suppresses the gagging reflex building up in his throat - he's gotten quite good at hiding his annoyance, since a whole bunch of people in this bar have tried to hit on him already. He’s learned how to play along.

"Zhang Yixing, Mr. Wu."

Wu Yifan nods and dismisses him with that. With the tray under his arm, he goes back to the bar and tells his coworker that she'd have to take over one of his bigger tables in exchange for hers. It's a busy Saturday night, so she doesn't drag the discussion out and just nods to take over table 18 which has about the same size as 21. Yixing takes a look at his wristwatch and sighs when it's only eleven. His shift has started three hours ago, and he still has five ahead of him. With the creepy feeling of Yifan’s eyes set on him, he reckons that this shift will be one of his longest ever since he started out as a waiter.

***

About a week later, Yixing had to take over table 21 quite a few more times. Wu Yifan and his entourage seemed to have chosen this bar as their new favorite place to hang and demanded Yixing to be their waiter every time. He still doesn't know anything about the other guy - the only thing he knows is that he really does leave generous tips which Yixing uses to pay the next three months of rent immediately*. Sometimes, Wu Yifan flirts with him, and being the customer-driven man that he is, Yixing reciprocates in form of dimpled smiles, winks, and witty comebacks. At the end of that week, he still thinks the man is a little sketchy, as are his friends - but he also finds him kind of cute, in a weird way that he cannot quite explain.

Wu Yifan, at this point, is nothing but a rich regular that somehow has found a liking in Yixing. It's nothing out of the ordinary, the student figures. Other friends of his that work at bars or restaurants have told him that they also have one or two customers who always come back for them. And as long the flirting only takes place at work, and Wu Yifan doesn't try to advance and get his number or WeChat account, he finds nothing bad in playing along and getting the extra money. In the end, he is young and is happy about anything that makes the expensive student life a little less frustrating - and money helps with that.

What he doesn't know is how his life is about to experience a whole and abrupt turnover and it's beginning with the day he loses his apartment. He didn't want a room in one of the dorms, so he rented a room in a shared apartment in the western part of the city. It's rather shabby, and far off the buzzing downtown and the campus, but it's cheap which is hard to find even in the city of Changsha. The urbanization that has arrived even in central China has taken its toll on the real estate prices in the cities, unfortunately.

From one day to the other, Yixing gets the notification that the landlord has sold the apartment and needs every tenant to move out within two weeks. And even though Changsha’s real estate market is nothing like the one in Beijing or Shanghai, two weeks are an incredibly short amount of time to find another suitable place. All his money is gone since the landlord has cashed it in only a week prior and is, of course, refusing to give the money back - and Wu Yifan hasn't shown up afterwards again, so his rather regular tips are missing and he has no savings left to even pay a hostel somewhere near his campus. Maybe it's also Yixing's own fault and his tendency to bury his head in the sand when obstacles appear in front of him - but when the landlord kicks him out onto the street, he doesn't know what to do while he sits on his suitcase in the humid Hunan heat. His other two roommates have managed to move out quickly. Only he is left with nowhere to go.

In his desperation, he pulls his suitcase behind him to the bar. He knows for a fact that Sun Honglei has a spare room in his apartment, and his boss has become sort of his patron in the time he's worked for him. He'd surely allow him to stay for a few days until he's figured out what to do. He doesn't want to call him though because he'd like to talk to him in person about this matter. SInce Honglei is known to be at the bar 24/7, even when it's not opened yet to work through the books, going to his workplace is the only thing that comes to his mind.

If he wasn’t so invested in drowning in self pity and hoping that Sun Honglei was there to hear him out, he would’ve noticed the expensive Mercedes parked at the backdoor. Yixing enters without hesitation or a second look at the vehicle though that seems to be weirdly out of place in the shabby back alley. He puts his suitcase into the breakroom that the employees use to grab a bite between their shifts before he goes on to find his boss.

"Sun Honglei?" He cries out into the hallway connecting the break room, Sun Honglei's office, the kitchen, and the bar, but he gets no reply.

His first instinct is to check the office, but it's empty. Then he hears the sound of a few chairs scratching over the old wooden floor. Yixing knows that sound - he hears it every time people sit down at the tables or get up from them. So he turns around and walks over to the bar, expecting to find his boss there to do some cleaning.

When he swings the door open, it's not only Sun Honglei who is present though.

His boss is sitting at one table, his face in great distress as he looks at the other man opposite of him - Wu Yifan.

"Umm...?"

"What are _you_ doing here?!"

Lu Han, or the Bloody Mary Guy, as Yixing likes to refer to him, jumps out of a corner and grabs his shoulder.

"I... um... I wanted to... talk to Sun Honglei?"

"Yixing, go," his boss commands. "You shouldn't be here!"

"Are you telling me he doesn't know?" Wu Yifan asks while Lu Han's grip gets tighter.

The other friend of Wu Yifan's, Huang Zitao, as Yixing has found out, gets up from a bar stool and it looks like he's ready to help Lu Han, should he ever have problems to keep Yixing under control.

"Doesn't know what?" Yixing asks, completely and utterly confused.

Wu Yifan looks at him, then he snorts and turns to Sun Honglei.

"Your handsome waiter has no fucking clue, right?"

"Why should I drag him into that?" Sun Honglei shoots back.

"Aren't you thoughtful!" Wu Yifan scoffs and takes a sip of his drink.

"Okay, can anyone tell me what is going on here?" Yixing drops in again. "And can you maybe let go of me? That kind of hurts!"

Lu Han snorts and his fingernails dig deeper into Yixing's flesh.

"I think you should shut up, handsome."

"Oh come on Lu Han! _Relax_!"

Lu Han exhales sharply when he hears that comment of his friend, but lets go of Yixing nonetheless.

"Thank you..." he scoffs and massages his hurting shoulder.

Wow. Bloody Mary Guy has a tight grip, something that one wouldn’t expect when seeing him.

"Okay, let's get back to business," Wu Yifan then says while Lu Han and Huang Zitao position themselves in front of the door, obviously blocking the way for Yixing to leave the scene.

Suddenly, he gets a really bad feeling about those guys. The way they eye Yixing like lions on the hunt, standing and lurking for Yixing to make a move, makes him extremely uncomfortable.

"Mister Sun," Wu Yifan starts and leans over the table in a domineering manner. "I'm a very patient man. But only to a certain degree. We've yet to receive _three monthly rents_ from you. Three! Do you know how much money that is?"

"I'm very well aware of that," Sun Honglei answers and leans back in his chair as if trying to escape from the other. "It's so much money that I cannot come up with it. Business is doing worse than ever! You guys are supposed to guarantee a decent customer flow, but most of my regulars have gone off to that other bar down the street! The one that is owned by that American guy! Ever since Mister Wang has disappeared, business has gotten bad!"

"Fucking Wang," Wu Yifan mutters and turns to the other two guys. "I fucking told you to find that guy!"

"Sorry Boss," Huang Zitao answers. "But we're still looking. Him and his guys have disappeared!"

"Yeah, it's scary. Kinda like they vanished into thin air..." Lu Han adds and the answer is a grunt from their ‘boss’.

He massages his temples as if trying to prevent a headache from crawling into his skull, then he says:

"Listen boys: I'm not asking you to find the Dragon Head of the fucking Sun Yee On**. I'm asking you to find a small and pathetic Red Pole with his twelve dwarfs under my command, how fucking hard can that be, huh?!"

"I swear, we've been looking everywhere, even in other operating areas. Nobody's heard or seen them for over five weeks!" Lu Han responds.

"They need to be somewhere, for fuck's sake! So get your lazy asses moving and deliver something to me!"

"We're working on it, Boss, really! We'll find them!"

Yixing doesn't understand one single word. He just keeps looking back and forth between Lu Han and Huang Zitao who seem to be getting distressed, and Wu Yifan who lights up another cigarette in annoyance.

"Jesus fucking Christ, if I wasn’t here to fix that shit, this fucking society wouldn't last one fucking day..." He curses and blows some smoke into Sun Honglei's direction. "You know that feeling, right? If you're not around to fix things, everything's just a huge pile of shit."

"Umm... yeah..." Honglei answers, clearly not meaning it.

Yifan takes another drag, then he announces:

"So, Yixing. Your boss here hasn't been paying his rent. So he's kind of in debt to me now. What should we do about this?"

"Wait... how is he in debt to you? He owns this bar."

"Oh, technically he does," Wu Yifan says. "But he's doing business in my operating area. To be able to do so, he needs to pay me. Simple as that."

"I cannot... quite follow..."

"You don't have to - fact is, _I_ want my money. _He_ cannot pay. What are we going to do to resolve this issue?"

"I... I don't know..." Yixing mumbles and Wu Yifan almost seems disappointed when he can't give him a satisfying answer.

He takes a long look at Yixing, and Honglei shifts his weight in his chair, getting even more nervous than before. Putting out the half-smoked cigarette, he finally says:

"Alright, old man, let's do it like this: I'll let you off the hook for now, since Red Pole Wang hasn't fulfilled his duty either and seems to have _vanished into thin air_."

Lu Han receives a scolding look from his boss, not his friend as Yixing has assumed before, and the man ducks his head, trying to look somewhere else. Wu Yifan turns back to Sun Honglei.

"It doesn't excuse you slacking off for three consecutive months though. I don’t care if Wang was fine with you not paying, but I’m not. So I'll have to be sure that one day, you'll pay me back, understand?"

"Yeah..."

"I am talking about some sort of 'deposit', you know. Something that I'll keep until you've paid me every fucking penny," Wu Yifan says and taps a document they have spread out in front of them, which looks like a contract or a bill, Yixing cannot quite make it out from the distance. "You gotta pay. And you gotta pay your debt and an interest for delaying your payment."

Sun Honglei looks up to him as if he wants to protest, but the words get stuck in his throat and he falls silent again. It's like he doesn't want to put up a fight with the other one, fearing even worse consequences.

"What... what kind of deposit are you talking about?" He then finally asks.

Yifan curls his lips and looks up to Yixing who must look pretty dumbfounded.

"I'll take your waiter with me."

"Wait _what_?!" Yixing cries out and the whole thing is so absurd, he doesn't even feel fear or panic, because this basically sounds like Yixing is some sort of object that Wu Yifan claims as his own.

"I... but... he's got nothing to do with..."

"I am _not discussing_ this with you! I'm taking your waiter with me until you're able to pay off the money you owe me."

Yifan gets up on his feet and downs his drink. When he puts the glass back down, he adds:

"Don't worry, I'll take good care of him. He won't even get a scratch."

"Please, I don't want to drag him into this!" Sun Honglei begs and gets up himself.

Yixing slowly feels his brain giving out the info: Danger! Fight or Flight! 

Huang Zitao and Lu Han put their hands on Yixing's shoulder though to prevent him for going with the flight option. Considering the fact that he doesn't know how to fight and punch people, the fight option is dismissed immediately too. _Fuck_.

"Umm... I..." Yixing starts, but Yifan cuts him off:

"Lu Han, bring him to my apartment, Tao and me have some other stuff to do."

"Sure, Boss," Lu Han mutters.

"Okay, but seriously, what is going on here?!" Yixing cries out.

"Yixing, I am so sorry!" He hears Honglei hollering after him while Lu Han drags him out with his arms yanked on his back.

"Are you actually kidnapping me?!" Yixing screeches.

"God, blow me," Lu Han responds and jockeys him through the backdoor to the car that Yixing hasn’t noticed before. "Boss said you won't get a scratch and he's a man of his words, so chill. Don't try any stupid stuff though."

With that, Lu Han presses himself against Yixing's back and he gasps when he feels something that reminds him of a fucking gun attached to the other man's hip. Then he opens the door and Yixing gets literally thrown onto the backseat. Lu Han sits behind the steering wheel and starts the engine. While he rides the car through Changsha's traffic, Yixing tries to remember the turns and streets they pass and hates himself for stowing his phone away in his suitcase before. Fuck. Now he can't even call the police or a friend to let anyone know that he's become the victim of a kidnapping scheme.

Yixing has a very bad sense of direction and is also very bad at remembering stuff. Plus, his mind is panicking and thus shutting down quite qickly - so after Lu Han has taken some detours through downtown, Yixing gives up trying to remember the way and slumps down into the seat. Then he thinks about jumping out of the car, but when he scoots to one side, Lu Han notices the movement in the rear mirror and says:

"Do you really think that I haven't activated the child safety lock?"

"Fuck..."

Lu Han chuckles.

"You got guts though. I wouldn't want to jump out of a driving car in that traffic."

Yixing doesn't know what to say - he is just utterly confused, because barely an hour before, he was just a homeless student. Now, he's a homeless kidnapped student. In his panic, Yixing thinks that once Lu Han will stop the car, he's just going to fight for his life to get out of here. But then... that dude is carrying a fucking gun on his hip. Whoever these guys are, they don't mess around. One wrong move, and Yixing will probably have a bullet between his eyes.

Lu Han finally drives the car into the parking lot of a high storied building and parks it in the back of the underground parking, far away from any cameras. Before he gets out, he detaches his gun out of its shaft and shows a fully loaded magazine. Yixing feels like someone has stabbed his guts with a dull and rusty knife and cold sweat breaks out on his forehead.

"Like I said. Don't do anything stupid. This thing is loaded and I have no problem in pulling that trigger. Got it?"

Yixing nods and tries to calm his breath down as Lu Han gets out and opens the back door. A muzzle is facing the student and Lu Han says:

"Get out."

Yixing stumbles out of the vehicle, very well aware of the gun pointing at him and he hears himself say, hands held high:

"Please, don't shoot me, okay? I..."

"Ugh, shut up and _walk_ , I don't have all day! You heard Boss, I still got to figure out this shit with Wang so _move it_!"

Yixing feels the cold metal of the weapon in his back and he squeals as Lu Han pushes him into the direction of the exit. When they step into the stairwell, Lu Han stows the gun away, but Yixing is so terrified by now, he wouldn't even dare to blink into the other's direction. Lu Han fetches the elevator and they drive up to the last floor where he pulls out a key card, swipes it over the reader of a heavy black door and pushes Yixing in who stumbles into a big and expensive looking apartment.

"Welcome," Lu Han says and closes the door. "I'm not going to give you a tour, you'll figure that out on your own. Guest bedroom is the last room on the left in the hallway. Don't crash in Boss' bed, he'll kill you. I'm off again."

"Wait but...?!"

Just like that, Lu Han takes off, a buzzing noise indicating that he has locked the door again. Yixing stands in the hallway for a good five minutes, before his brain can give out the order to move and he dashes to the door. He tries to open it but of course, his success is debatable. A long grunt escapes Yixing’s throat, then he ruffles his hair in frustration. 

_Okay. Think, Yixing. You need to get out of here somehow._

The fact that he's in an apartment located on the 30th floor makes the chance to escape through a window rather small. So he somehow needs to find a way through the door, but he doesn't know how key card locks work and he doesn't have his phone to google that or call someone. When his phone comes to his mind, he starts going on a quest to find any kind of method to communicate with the outside world - a phone, a computer, anything that might help him to let other people know that he's being locked away by a minion of a guy who is an obvious psychopath.

This quest is deemed to fail though as Yixing explores the apartment. And by exploring, it literally means that. His own apartment had three bedrooms, a bathroom, a dirty kitchen and a very dark hallway that had to suffice as a living room. Wu Yifan's apartment is twice the size, featuring a big and stylish kitchen connected to a living room including a big flat screen TV and an expensive looking entertainment system, a bright and clean bathroom, a study room, two bedrooms, and a fucking rooftop terrace with a magnificent view over Changsha. He doesn't know what exactly Yifan is doing, but judging from the shady meeting with Sun Honglei, the money he has isn't earned during extra hours at a bank or a regular office job.

In the study room, Yixing does find an iPad but all of his attempts to break the code fail and he actually manages to block the device for glorious five days. He tries to find a way to escape through the terrace, but if he doesn't want to die a painful death by jumping off the roof, there's no way to leave. He also finds that Yifan does not own a landline telephone, and his last hope to get help is crushed.

"Fuuuuck, fuck, fuck!" Yixing cries out when he tries to find any other solution to his problem and crashes down on the big white couch.

He's dead. He's fucked. He's fallen into the hands of a psychopath that will probably hold him captive to torture and rape him or something. He curls up into a ball of misery and desperation and falls down to his side. What did he ever do to end up in such a situation?!

_***_

When Yixing awakes the next day, it's barely eight in the morning. The room around him feels weird, and he needs a second to realize that he is not in his own apartment. He shoots up when the events of yesterday hit him - losing his apartment, walking in on that extremely weird situation between his boss and this customer and then getting dragged to said home like some sort of pet that you pick up at the pet store. He hasn't seen Wu Yifan yet and has followed Lu Han's instructions to just go to bed in the room at the end of the hallway – the only, quite morbid, thought that makes the situation a little better is that he is not out on the streets. At least there’s a roof over his head and a, even though he doesn’t want to admit it, very comfortable bed to sleep in. Even though the bed and the roof belong to a psycho who decided to keep him locked away.

When his thoughts jump to Wu Yifan, Yixing thinks that he can hear someone working in the kitchen. He takes a deep breath to build up some courage, before he shuffles into said room where he finds the other man. When he nears the kitchen island, he cannot quite believe his own eyes:

Wu Yifan is standing at the counter, cutting up a mango with skilled movements. There's light Jazz music playing in the background and the room is filled with the smell of freshly brewed coffee. While cutting the fruit into bite-sized pieces, he nods his head to the beat of the music and even hums along to the melody. It won't fit together – the man that has been cursing and doing shady business not even 24 hours ago is _preparing a healthy breakfast_. Yixing shakes his head and closes his eyes, convinced that they must be deceiving him but when he opens them again, Wu Yifan is still cutting the mango and humming along to the saxophone solo filling up the room. When he puts the pieces into a bowl with other cut fruit, he recognizes Yixing standing in the doorway and freezes a second. Then, he smiles and puts the bowl onto the counter of the kitchen island.

"You must be hungry. I found out Lu Han didn't get you dinner."

Yixing only slowly sits down in front of the fruit salad while Yifan places a fork next to it. Afterwards, the other man takes the cutting board and the knife and carries it over to the sink.

"That's not how to treat guests, I'm sorry about that."

"So I'm a guest," Yixing slips.

Yifan turns around again with a raised eyebrow.

"Of course you are."

"Well, Lu Han held his gun into my back and locked the door, that kind of feels like I'm a prisoner."

"He's such a drama queen," Yifan says and rolls his eyes.

He leaves the board and knife in the sink, then he walks over to Yixing and sits down next to him. Yixing's stomach roars from the hunger, but the whole situation is so weird and creepy that he forgets about the food altogether.

"Why aren't you eating? Are you allergic to mangos?"

Yifan takes a look into the bowl and frowns. Yixing is absolutely speechless as Yifan seems to be completely oblivious to the whole situation.

"Umm? You know, it's just kind of hard to wrap my head around this," Yixing snorts in a sarcastic tone when he finally gets himself together. "Not only did my landlord kick me out of my apartment, but I got kidnapped by some... I don't know who you are and what you're doing, but your little minion carrying around a gun indicates it's nothing legal... so... I get kidnapped by some weird people, and you are sitting here and worry that I might be allergic to fucking mangos?!"

Yixing doesn't know where in the hell this courage came up, and he blames the hypoglycemia from haven't eaten in almost 24 hours. There's a silence following Yixing's outburst and Yixing thinks _that's it, he's going to kill me right on the spot_. Instead of grabbing a knife and cutting him open though, Yifan throws his head back and starts laughing, then he says:

"I like you!"

“What the fuck...?"

Yeah, maybe this Wu Yifan guy really is a psychopath. Yixing watches as the other supports his head with one hand on the counter and his laughter dies down into some giggles.

"My bad, I see why you're confused."

"Oh, thank you!" Yixing bitches and he's scared of himself - does he really want to get killed?

With that tongue of his he's surely on his way to piss Yifan off enough to do so.

"I'll explain, but please promise me to eat, I'm worried you might black out on me."

Yixing eyes the fruit salad suspiciously, then Yifan sighs, takes the fork he's placed next to the bowl and puts some of the mango pieces into his mouth. When he's chewed and swallowed them, he says:

"I didn't poison it, so relax."

To emphasize this statement, he takes another bite and swallows the fruit. Yixing presses his lips together, feeling the emptiness of his stomach getting to his head, and then he says with the tone of defeat in his voice:

"I can't... I'm... allergic to mangos."

It's not a joke - as a kid, he once almost died from licking on a mango ice cream cone which was a hard lesson for him, but ever since he's avoided the fruit. Yifan snorts, but when he realizes that Yixing is dead serious, he bursts out into laughter once again and takes the bowl away.

"I fucking cannot believe it!"

He laughs and walks back around the island to place the bowl onto the worktop. Then he grabs a mug and pours Yixing some coffee that he puts in front of him.

"Here, to keep you occupied until I come up with something new. Do you need sugar to that?"

"No,” Yixing presses out between a thin line of lips and watches as Yifan shuffles to the fridge and checks its content. He keeps staring into it for maybe 30 seconds, then he grabs some stuff and another bowl.

"Pancakes it is then."

One part of Yixing tells him to just grab the fork, stab it into the other’s eye and make a run for it, another part of him tells him to enjoy some pancakes and coffee before starting his attempt to escape. The latter part wins over, mostly because he's really wobbly on his feet, and he just keeps looking at Yifan who starts to whisk up some pancake batter that is missing some integral ingredients like eggs and milk.

"Umm... sorry but... no eggs?"

Yifan looks up while he keeps stirring in the bowl and grins.

"I'm vegan."

"You're... huh?!"

Veganism is a concept that is not really spread in China. Vegetarism as it is, is one of those weird things that foreigners do - meat is an integral part of the Chinese cuisine, even when it's playing mostly a supporting role. Except for when you’re a strict Buddhist, nobody really bothers about a plant-based diet. Yifan giggles and gets a pan.

"Yeah, I know, it’s weird. I don't have any animal products in my house. And I don't feed my body with anything that actually belongs to an animal. I’ll spare you my preaching about that for now though."

Yixing feels his head get heavy from everything happening around him, so he supports it with his hands and says:

"I don't understand anything anymore."

“It's not that hard to understand, actually. But believe me, vegan pancakes can be good."

"Jesus fucking Christ, can you please tell me what exactly is going on?! Why are those two other guys calling you 'boss', and why is Sun Honglei owing you money? And what did I ever do to you to keep me here? And why the fuck are you making me breakfast?!"

To say that he is confused would be an understatement. He is absolutely shocked and disoriented and doesn't know what to do - he just needs answers, and food, and then a rock solid escape plan.

"Okay, let's start with the easy one," Yifan says and puts some of the batter into the heated pan. A sizzling sound drowns out the Jazz tunes and the smell of actual pancakes fills the air. "I am making breakfast for you because human bodies need food to function. And you are a little green around the nose, it's actually kind of concerning me."

While checking if the pancakes are brown enough on one side, he continues his explanation, as if talking about the weather.

"The other things... well. Huang Zitao and Lu Han call me 'boss' because I am, in fact, their boss," He flips the pancakes and while they fry on the other side, he gets a plate from another cupboard.

"We are not doing conventional business though, to put it... nicely. And Sun Honglei is part of that business, because he has the bar which falls into our operation area. I usually have other men checking on the individual businesses but the guy who is in charge for the area around Sun's bar has disappeared which requires me to chip in until I find a solution to that problem."

Yixing frowns and a very dark thought crawls into his mind which makes the hair of his neck stand on edge. Yifan stacks the first three pancakes onto the plate, and while the next three portions of batter land in the pan, he says:

"I'm the head of a triad."

Just like that. He doesn't beat around the bush. He doesn't try to lie or alter some facts to make it sound legal. He just throws it at Yixing - _do whatever you want with that information_.

"You... are... what?!"

Yifan rolls up the sleeve on his right arm and shows a tattooed number on his skin, a clean and simple 489.

"That's the number of the Dragon Head of a triad. The next positions in the hierarchy are 438ers. I got elected after my father died and I'm in charge to keep the business going. I have most of Changsha and a few suburbs under my control, and we've specialized in drug smuggling and distribution and prostitution. Oh, and chili trade."

"Chili... trade...?!"

"It's Hunan, Yixing," Yifan responds and flips the pancakes once again so they'd get golden on the other side too. "It's a very profitable business."

If anyone had ever told him that they were a guy from a triad, he probably wouldn't have believed it. Yet, this is happening right now to him and instead of saying ‘Yeah okay, good joke, so what are you _really_ doing?’ Yixing just accepts the fact that a criminal is preparing his breakfast in this very moment. But maybe it's because he just doesn't have the strength to discuss this out. Yifan looks back at him, as if checking if he is still with him or already dead from the shock that revelation might have caused. Then he continues his explanation.

"To answer your question why you are here - that may be a little more complicated because I don't want to make it sound like I'm a creep."

"Umm..." Yixing mutters and bites his tongue to swallow the 'You're kind of sounding like that already' threatening to escape his mouth.

"Well! Since Wang is off somewhere, I decided to check on Sun Honglei's bar and when I saw you I thought you were kind of cute. Which made me go back there regularly."

When the last part of batter is in the pan, he grabs a few strawberries from another bowl and holds them up with a questioning look, as if asking if strawberries would kill Yixing. Yixing shakes his head, signaling that strawberries can't pose a threat to his wellbeing and Yifan proceeds to cut them into slices.

"Truth be told, even though work keeps me busy, I'm not good at being lonely. And this is a dead ass big apartment. Also, Sun Honglei really needs to pay and if I am keeping something that he cares about, and he really does care about you, so he has told me himself, he might get his ass moving. So here I am, being a selfish asshole and jumping at the opportunity to actually... fill this apartment with life."

Another flip of the pancake, a few additional banana slices, and while he stacks the pancakes on the plate and decorates them with the fruit, he says:

"I'm sorry for pulling that bossy triad attitude on you. You must've been scared as hell yesterday. I do not intend to harm you in any kind of way, even if it might come off like that. Was an unfortunate move on my behalf. And Lu Han was obviously not trying to make the situation better.”

He finally places the pancakes in front of Yixing, then he grabs some maple syrup to pour some of it over them. Yixing watches as the sticky golden liquid coats the pancakes and the fruit, making the whole thing look like one of those pictures you'd find on food blogs.

A fucking vegan food blog. Run by a triad boss. _What the fuck is going on?! Am I still dreaming?!_

"And I think you just said that your landlord kicked you out? So, you staying here is kind of a win-win situation. I get the company, you get a place to stay for free."

Yixing heaves a sigh - this is kind of right. And the thought that this has crossed his mind before already scares him. But... can that dude be trusted? Or is this just a way of luring Yixing into believing him, so he can later have his way with him as he pleases?

"Please eat now. They're better when eaten warm."

Yixing gives in and takes the fork and the knife that Yifan hands over to him. Yixing can't even concentrate on the taste, because he's so hungry his stomach cries out in a roar for more when he swallows the first bites. Only when he's cleared half the plate and he's noticed Yifan's gaze expecting an opinion, he starts to realize that these things are actually really tasty.

"Umm... they're good," he mumbles and Yifan smiles in content.

"Of course they are. Took me quite some time to figure out a good recipe."

The pan wanders into the sink to the cutting board and the kitchen knife, then Yifan grabs the fruit salad to have that himself.

"So... what do you want from me? Do you... I don't know... do you plan to pull a 'Beauty and the Beast' and lock me up in your tower? I mean... people at university will start noticing that I'm missing..."

Yifan lets out a chuckle while he sits down again next to him.

"Like I said, you are a guest, not a prisoner," he explains. "Which is why I've gotten your suitcase with your phone. It's in the hallway."

The fork lands on the plate with a clattering sound as Yixing hears that.

"You did what?"

"I got your stuff here," Yifan answers. "Do you think I'll let you run around in the same clothes for weeks?" 

When Yixing doesn't respond, Yifan adds:

"You're not going to be locked away from the outside world. I want you to continue to go to classes and work on your education. I just want you to come back here afterwards."

"What if I won't come back?"

"Well, then I'll just find you and bring you back."

"That sounds like stalking. Which is kind of illegal."

Yifan lets the bowl sink and raises an eyebrow which makes Yixing realize that 'illegal' isn't an argument that will work on Yifan. He picks up his fork again and concentrates on the last remaining parts of the pancakes.

"Okay, but what if I will call the police and tell them who you are?"

"Oh, be my guest. The head of the city police force is my neighbor and sometimes I am invited over for dinner with his family."

A bite of pancake gets stuck in Yixing's throat and he downs some coffee to get rid of it. When he puts the mug down, he yells:

"What?!"

"He knows exactly who I am. I'm paying him some nice extra money to his salary so he won't pursue me."

"I... am..."

"Don't act like corruption is so unusual in this country."

Yifan shrugs his shoulders, and Yixing realizes that yes - he is utterly fucked. There is no way out of this situation and his only hope is Sun Honglei to get the goddamn money and free him like that. Yixing lets out a whine when the plate is cleared, not because the food was bad, but because he just cannot believe what he has gotten into. Yifan takes the plate and starts cleaning it along with the other things waiting for him in the sink.

"You go ahead and get comfortable in your room with your stuff. I'll clean this up."

The fact that Yifan is so sure that Yixing won't try to pull anything to escape is creeping Yixing out, so he slips off the chair without a word and fetches his suitcase which is really standing in the hallway, ready to be claimed by its owner again. He doesn't even hesitate for one second and grabs his phone which shows a few missed calls and messages by his friends who want to know if he has found a place to stay. Some of them are offering to take him in for a while, and he wishes that those messages would've reached him before entering that bar. He contemplates what to write and goes through the pros and cons of telling them what is going on. The cons weigh in much heavier, and he’s probably still shocked about what is happening to him, so he types a quick answer that he copies and pastes into different conversations for his friends:

_No worries! I've found a place, I'm doing fine! See you in class tomorrow!_


	2. Chapter 2

Part II

The whole situation is rather bizarre. So bizarre, that Yixing doesn’t even know how to feel about it at all. 

If a stranger watched them, they'd probably think he and Yifan have lived together for years now - every morning, even when Yixing has early classes, Yifan would get up to fix him breakfast, even though Yixing usually doesn't have breakfast. But, after a few times to try to convince Yifan that making him food isn't necessary, he's given up. It's astonishing what Yifan comes up with in the mornings and how he picks up on stuff that Yixing likes even when he doesn't say it explicitly. Things that Yixing finds good in taste are things that frequently reappear on his plates and it's actually kind of cute how Yifan tries to please him with food.

It's actually kind of cute how hard Yifan tries to be a good host to Yixing in general, who, in return, gets used to that way too fast. In the beginning, he's tried to dodge Yifan's offers to drive him to classes, told him to not pick him up from university and also refused money for taxi rides since he's used to taking public transportation. But just like the breakfast issue, Yixing gives up resisting and finds that getting to the campus in an air-conditioned car is way more comfortable than being cramped up in a bus between other sweaty bodies. 

When he gets back to the apartment after his classes, Yifan is either preparing some amazing dinner or ordering in, which is the only time Yixing actually gets meat onto his plate, even though Yifan regularly starts preaching about how meat consumption isn't only bad for your own body, but also for the environment. So while Yifan is munching on his veggies and tofu pieces, Yixing shovels some chicken into his mouth while they're lounging on the couch in front of the flat screen and watch the latest episodes of some weird American TV shows. 

Yifan usually asks Yixing about his lectures and the upcoming finals, and sometimes Yixing slips into a whole lot of whining about the curriculum. When he can't join Yifan for dinner because of his need to revise everything he was supposed to learn over the semester, Yifan would sometimes slip into Yixing's room and place some snacks next to him. 

He barely touches Yixing, but when he does, it's gentle, almost as if he's not sure if a move on him would scare Yixing away. Yifan’s hand would slip over Yixing's shoulder or neck with gentle pressure, his knee would bump against Yixing's during breakfast or TV time, and the movements are oddly natural, as if Yifan has never done anything else in his life but touching Yixing like that.

And then, Yixing remembers what is _actually_ going on.

It's when Yifan puts on his shoes because he has a meeting with someone and Yixing is still hunched over his breakfast - and Yifan yells from the hallway:

"I'm leaving, have a nice day! See you tonight!"

And Yixing, mostly swallowing another creation of oatmeal, pancakes, or toast, yells back:

"Thank you, the same! See you!"

When the door falls into the lock, Yixing pauses for a moment and gets creeped out by the fact that he's wished a triad boss _a good day at work_ like a wife sending her husband off to his regular office job. Yifan doesn't talk about what he's doing when he's not with Yixing. And Yixing doesn't want to know, to be honest. When he remembers who Yifan actually is, he gets scared again because sometimes Yifan comes home and he's furious about something, something that he clearly can't stop from dragging into his home. When that happens and he looks at Yixing, it feels like somebody is twisting his guts in their hands. 

In those moments, Yixing sees why Yifan is who he is - his dark eyes and sharp jawline paired with this cold aura surrounding him makes it easy to believe that he's killed someone with his bare hands. That he's got no problems in hurting people. And that's when Yixing's mind starts to run wild and he fears that one day, Yifan will just grab him by the neck with his big hands and snap it into two or he will drop all the nice attitude and will lock him up in a secret torture room to have his way with him. In those moments, Yixing is clenching his hands around his phone, ready to call the police or one of his friends, to beg them to save him from this man, but then Yifan appears in the doorway or in front of him to place a gentle hand on his shoulder and says:

"Didn't you hear me? Dinner's ready."

"Huh?! Oh! Sorry..."

"Are you okay?"

It's this question paired with eyes which lose all their darkness when they look at Yixing that make the panic go away.

"I'm fine. Just a stressful day," Yixing then says with a crooked smile.

"Which emphasizes the need for a hearty dinner, so come on."

This happens on a regular basis, and every time Yixing follows him into the kitchen, he reminds himself that Sun Honglei is probably working hard on getting the money together, so the whole situation is only temporary – that is, if Yifan keeps his promise, which he likes to believe for the sake of his own sanity.

***

Three weeks in this weird thing going on, Yixing gets picked up from his class again. When he gets off campus, he sees the black Mercedes parked in front of the entrance gate and he quickly walks over so none of his friends will see him. He's been dodging them for quite some time now and if they ever notice him leaving in an expensive car almost every day after classes, they probably wouldn't let him off the hook. He hasn't come up with a suitable explanation - one that won't require him to lie too much because he's horrible at that, at least - and until then, he'd like to keep his new living situation a secret.

When he slips onto the backseat of the car, Yifan is sitting next to him. Lu Han is on the passenger seat, Zitao is behind the wheel and immediately starts the engine.

"How was your day?" Yifan asks. "Are you hungry?"

"Um... fine I guess... and... yeah a little?"

Yifan shows a smile and says:

"Great, I've booked a table."

"Okay..."

Yixing has the feeling that he'll be taken out for some fancy five star dinner today and tries to ignore the exciting feeling in his stomach - no. He won't be bought with a nice dinner. Especially not by a _triad boss_ , for god's sake!

"So we'll drop you off, right?" Zitao asks and overtakes another car while Lu Han keeps typing on his phone.

"Right. And I hope that when we get back, you two losers will finally have some answers on Wang and his gang, I'm fucking tired of doing this Red Pole job," Yifan retorts and Zitao presses his lips together.

"Ugh, shit!" Lu Han exclaims and tosses his phone into his lap. "This guy is so annoying!"

Yifan lifts an eyebrow upon hearing that.

"I hope you're not talking about me."

"What?!" Lu Han turns around to face him. "No! Never! It's just that stupid idiot from Wang's KTV. He can't reach him and he has problems with his girls and wants us to help him. They're on some sort of strike."

"What the fucking hell has Wang been doing all this time?! He couldn't take care of that bar and he couldn't take care of that KTV, god forgive him the day I get my hands on that son of a bitch!" Yifan curses, then he adds, "Tao, make a detour, I'm gonna check it out."

"Won't you lose your reservation?"

"Nah, we've still got some time to spare."

Tao shrugs his shoulders and takes a left turn to get them downtown. They drive for another ten minutes until he stops the car in a back alley.

"Do you want to come with us or do you want to wait in the car?" Yifan asks Yixing when the other two in the front get out.

Yixing takes a look around the alley and it's so creepy, he opens the door without a word. Yifan lets out a low chuckle before he steps out of the car himself. The student follows the trio on their heels into a high storied building where there's a KTV located on the 15th floor. It's already opened to the public, but there are no people around - KTVs are usually rather empty around this time of the day, but even for the early evening, it seems too empty. There's also no music playing from the KTV rooms, which makes Yifan furious.

"What the fucking hell is going on here?"

Right when they keep standing at the reception, a man comes running towards them from inside of the establishment.

"Finally!" He exclaims as he sees them. "Someone needs to talk some sense into my girls! Are you the new guy for Wang?"

Yifan blinks in confusion, then he rolls up his sleeve and shows the tattooed number on his arm. The owner, who's a bald, fat, and rather ugly guy, screeches when he realizes who is standing in front of him.

"I'm handling his issues until he comes back," Yifan explains while rolling down his sleeve again. "What's the problem?"

"The girls... they... umm... they don't want to work anymore! They set some demands and if I don't obey they won't serve my customers anymore!"

"I swear to god..." Yifan mutters and follows the owner into one of the biggest KTV rooms where a good fifteen girls sit on the leather couches.

Yixing doesn't need any more explanation, a look at their short skirts, deep neckline tops, high heels, and painted faces makes clear that they're prostitutes. This place is a brothel disguised as a normal KTV. For a split second, the thought that prostitution is illegal in China crosses his mind, then he remembers - triads. Prostitution is probably the lightest criminal business they're running.

When the girls see Yifan and the other four guys entering, their chats die down, and one of them, obviously the leader of the group, stands up.

"So that is the guy you threatened us with, Li Nan?" She asks and raises her thin eyebrows.

"Okay Missie, sit your ass down," Yifan replies unimpressed and she only reluctantly obeys.

When she's seated again, Yifan looks over the group of women, of which some seem scared of him, some others look like they're ready to pick a fight. Yifan places his hands on his hips, then he says:

"I've heard you're on some sort of strike. Does anyone bother to fill me in on this stupid shit?"

"This isn't stupid shit!" The leader barks. "This is about our rights as employees!"

"Girl. You're a prostitute. You don't have any rights to begin with," Yifan reminds her. "I know for a fact that at least five of you are here illegally. I could get your asses right back into the countries where you're from."

"How would _you_ know?! You've never been around here!" Another girl says.

"I was the one who distributed you over my KTVs. Two of you are from North Korea, right?"

Two girls jump at the question, outing themselves as the ones. Yifan chuckles.

"Knew it. So. What kind of use are you to me if you won't do the work that I need you to do? You want to get back? I bet there are guards in the labor camps in North Korea that just _can't wait_ to rape you two."

"No, please!" One of them cries out. "I don't want to go back!"

"Then get the fuck back to work!"

"None of us will go back to work until our demands are met!"

"What the fuck is this here? The latest feminist movement?!" Yifan throws back at them and the confidence that the girls have been showing fades. "You girls have been hired to please customers. If you're not doing your job, I'll get you fired, your asses deported back to the countries you came from, and find new girls who'd happily take your place."

There is still no reaction and the two Korean girls scoot together, looking up to Yifan in fear.

"No," the leader finally says. "We won't fuck one single customer until we get better working conditions!"

"Alright."

Yifan walks over to the two girls and grabs their wrists.

"We'll start with those two. I'll get my guys to put you onto the next train home."

He pulls them up rather harshly and they start screaming - the girls around them shy away while some others jump up to hold them back, but Yifan is a tall and strong guy, and the girls are all slim and fragile. They stand no chance against him.

"No! Please! No! We'll do anything!" One of the two Koreans starts crying while she tries to hold on to the sofa so she can't get dragged out.

"Why won't he just listen to their demands?" Yixing asks Lu Han who's standing next to him, arms crossed and head tilted.

"Oh, that's easy. All he wanted was to have dinner with you and now he has to play daddy again and clean up the mess others caused. He's a very impatient man regarding such matters, you know," Lu Han answers.

"Do you know that Li Nan is scamming you?" The leader throws in and Yifan, who's gotten the girls off the couch and has turned to Tao and Lu Han with them, holds on for a second.

"Come again, Missie?"

The two girls keep whimpering, but they sense a chance of Yifan forgetting about them. They look to the other woman, hope lighting up in their teary eyes.

"I've seen the books. And I've seen the contract that he has with Wang. The contract says that Wang gets a 50 percent share of the money we make. 30 percent are for Li Nan. The remaining 20 percent are ours to keep. Now this isn't only a fucking joke because it's us who have to spread our legs for those disgusting assholes and we get barely any payment in return - Li Nan has kept about 80 percent of the share, altered the numbers and gave you guys only around 20 percent. And we got nothing."

The words take some time to sink in and she gets up again to meet Yifan on his eye level. She's very tall to begin with and with her high heels, she's easily the same height as him.

"How long has this been going on?"

"A few weeks now. Ever since Wang has stopped showing. Li Nan said he's come to a new arrangement with him."

This is when Yifan lets go of the two girls who run back into the arms of their coworkers immediately, still sobbing in fear.

"You have been sniffling around in my books?!" Li Nan bursts out.

"I needed to know what's going on! And all we want is money for our work! Two meals a day for constantly letting men abuse us isn't payment!"

When the girls realize that they finally caught Yifan's attention, one of them says:

"Tell him about Moli!"

"Who the fuck is Moli?"

Lu Han sighs next to Yixing.

"This is going to take some time..."

Yixing suddenly thinks that it would've been better if he had stayed in the car and starts wishing to be able to just vanish into air without others noticing.

"She's gotten beaten up by her last client and because Li Nan won't cover for the treatment, we've tried to treat her wounds on our own. But because we cannot afford the medicine and Li Nan is refusing to buy even disinfectant, her wound's gotten infected. It's really bad, we all think she might even die."

"What kind of wounds are we talking about here?" Yifan requires.

The leader raises her eyebrow, then she says, without taking her gaze off Yifan:

"Someone get her. Let him take a look himself."

The girl closest to the door gets up and leaves the room. Another one turns on the big lights at the ceiling so the room is properly illuminated and Yifan will be able to take a good look at her.

"She's gotten a black eye and a few scratches, it's nothing serious!" Li Nan starts babbling and sweat begins to show on his bald head.

"Oh wait, have I allowed you to open your filthy mouth?" Yifan barks at him and Li Nan whimpers. "Thought so."

It takes some time for the other one to return. But when she does, she's got another girl over her shoulder and it even makes Tao and Lu Han flinch when they see her.

Half of her face is covered in band-aids that are barely of any use, bloody and suppurating. Yixing cannot find a proper word to describe her face, but _smashed_ comes the nearest. The other half which hasn't gotten a beating indicates that she would be a very pretty girl. The festering wounds fill the room with a foul smell and Yixing tries hard not to breathe because he fears that he might vomit.

"What the _fuck_?! A few _scratches_?! Are you out of your god damn mind?!" Yifan roars when he sees her.

"She's running a fever and she always complains about the pain, nothing we do helps..." The girl who brought her says and Yifan steps closer to lift her chin.

She flinches and whines while Yifan inspects her face with a disgusted look on his own.

"Is this a fucking bitemark on her cheek?!"

"Yes," the leader of the girls confirms. "Her client went madshit crazy on her."

Even Yifan, who's probably used to brutality shakes his head in disbelief and lifts her chin a little more. A few tears stream down her face and she's wobbly on her feet, barely able to keep herself up. When Yifan inspects the skin around her neck, he grunts.

"Li Nan you fucking asshole!" Yifan barks, "This girl is fucking septic and you won't get her to the hospital?!"

"She doesn't have documents!" Li Nan tries to defend himself, "And Wang is gone, he would've taken care of it!"

"Jesus fucking Christ." Yifan is still rather rough when he pushes her into Tao's direction. "Tao, get her to the hospital. We'll take care of it. Use my car."

Tao nods and lifts her up as her legs seem to stop working. Lu Han opens the door for them and when Tao is gone, Yifan turns to Li Nan.

"You're such a piece of shit. How is a dying girl of any use for my business, huh?"

"Her papers..."

"You know what? Just shut your mouth. I don't want to hear any of your weak ass excuses. How many times has Wang saved your sorry fat ass, huh?!"

Li Nan retreats a few steps into the direction of the door.

"One more step and Lu Han shoots your dick off. He's good at aiming."

Li Nan looks back to Lu Han, the guy with the innocent looks of a poster boy, who just smiles and reveals the gun around his belt under his suit jacket. Li Nan's eyes widen in shock and he lifts his stubby fingers in the air as if surrendering. Lu Han keeps his hand on his gun while the KTV owner swallows heavily. Sweat begins to run down his temples and his blue dress shirt starts showing dark spots around the armpits. Yifan turns back to the girls and opens his hand.

"So, what are your demands?"

The leader shows a triumphant smile and pulls a piece of paper out of her bra that she hands over to him. While muttering a few curses under his breath, Yifan goes over a list that contains five points and what seems a new share system for the money made by the girls.

"First and foremost, we want safety from brutal clients. And medical check ups."

Yifan heaves an annoyed sigh while he skims over the points. Then he looks back at her.

"Who wrote this?"

"Me."

"On your own?"

"Yes."

The girls on the sofa lean over in anticipation. During a span of ten seconds, the whole room seems to hold its breath, then Yifan looks back at the paper, before he asks:

"What's your name?"

"Angel."

When Yifan raises his eyebrow at her cheesy English name, she rolls her eyes.

"Cai Meihua."

"You know what, I'll stick with Angel." The triad boss pulls out the phone in the pocket of his pants. While he adds a new contact, he says, "You're pretty smart. You should make more use of that."

He hands over his phone. Angel needs a few seconds to understand what he wants and takes the device to type in her phone number. When she hands it back, Yifan turns to the rest of the girls.

"Alright. We'll be back in a few days with a new contract for this KTV. I'll meet your demands."

The prostitutes' faces light up and some even start smiling when they hear that. Yifan points to Angel.

"Until then, she's in charge for this fucking thing here. And now. Get your asses back to work!"

It needs a few beats and Yifan yelling another "Now!" for them to jump up and leave the room. Angel flips her hair back to reveal her collarbones – it’s probably one of those moves that is supposed to show her sexy side to get the attention of another client.

"Why'd you save my number?" She purrs.

"Don't worry, I don't find you cute in the slightest," Yifan says and Angel drops the flirty attitude immediately. "There will be new structures in the future and I need to do preparations. That is all."

He turns around and leaves her standing. Then he looks at Li Nan who still hasn't moved an inch.

"Lu Han, take care of that piece of shit."

"What... what do you mean?!" Li Nan squeals and Lu Han grabs his elbow. "No, I- what do you... what's going to happen to me?! Hey, _hey_!"

Li Nan's yelling fades in the corridors as he gets dragged away. Yixing has the same question spinning in his mind while he follows Yifan out onto the streets, but then again - no. He doesn't want to know any of the things that Yifan and the others are doing. Those past twenty minutes have been enough for him already. When they get out, the car is gone, obviously taken by Tao to bring Moli to the nearest hospital. In that moment, Yifan's phone goes off.

"Yes?"

"Hi, Boss, she's hospitalized and Jesus fuck, your car smells like something's died in there. I'll fix this immediately. Shit man. I'm shocked. This girl was shit wrecked. I'm not even sure if she'll make it..." Yixing hears Tao faintly and he doesn't even know what to think about that.

Yifan grunts, then he says:

"And why are we actually having this issue, Tao, huh?!"

There's silence at the end of the line, then Tao says:

"Well... because men are pieces of trash?"

"Because Wang is gone and everything under his control is going down the fucking drain, so find him!"

"Boss, I've told you, Lu Han and me..."

"I'm giving you five more days, I'm fucking tired of this bullshit!"

"Boss..."

"Five! Days!"

Yifan hangs up on Tao who tries to launch an explanation, and stuffs the phone into his pocket. His eyes are pitch black again and it feels like if Yixing is doing one wrong move, he'll probably take his anger out on him. Yixing holds his breath, then Yifan heaves a sigh and looks at him.

"Sorry. I... I didn't want you to see that."

Yixing doesn't know what to say, so he just vaguely shrugs his shoulders. The other man looks at his wristwatch and raises an eyebrow.

"Well. I guess dinner's off. We just lost our table." He lets his hand sink and adds, "Let's go home. I'll order in. I guess you're craving some chicken or beef."

He steps out onto the main street and hauls a taxi, while Yixing follows him, still thinking about what just happened. He doesn't want to think that way, but somehow he has the feeling that Li Nan won't be coming back anymore. It's gut wrenching and the fact that Yifan doesn't seem to care the slightest is bringing the panicky feeling in his chest back. They spend the ride home in silence and when they walk into the apartment, Yifan asks:

"So, what do you want to have?"

"I'm... not really hungry."

Yixing doesn't feel like seeing Yifan in this very moment and just wants to retreat into the guest room, but Yifan is already sensing that his weird behavior has to do with the girls and Li Nan.

"Yixing, sit down and let me explain something."

The tone in his voice isn't threatening, but it also signals that he won't let Yixing alone until he obeys so Yixing shuffles to the sofa in the living room and sits down at the very end of it, while Yifan himself sits down in the middle, giving Yixing enough personal space.

"I don't think you need to explain yourself. I know what you're doing. I shouldn't be too surprised."

"Yeah, and maybe because I don't really tell you what I'm doing exactly, you fear me."

"I don't..."

"You do. I see the way you flinch when I enter a room."

"I..."

"It's okay, Yixing. I probably would react just like you if I was in your position. Which requires me to clear some things up."

"Listen, Yifan, I don't want to get involved in any of this."

Yifan cuts him off in lifting his right hand. Yixing grabs a pillow instead of trying to dodge whatever Yifan is about to tell him and decides to allow Yifan to explain himself. The other man sighs, then he rubs his eyes with his hand while leaning back and supporting his head with his hand on the back of the sofa.

"Listen, I don't really like what I'm doing. But it's hard to leave organized crime when you've grown up as the son of a Dragon Head. I don't know any better. When I was twelve I witnessed the denunciation of what I used to call my ‘uncle’ when in fact it was my dad’s deputy who had turned on him. He made me watch it, because he wanted me to know what our family is doing. Ever since, there was no turning back for me and he taught me everything I needed to know about our business. And when my father died, I got chosen to continue his work and I can't let him down. And I know exactly that what I'm doing hurts others, like those girls for example, but I see no other way. There's a bigger picture here that I contribute to and a lot of people count on me. Not only my sworn brothers, but also their wives and kids that are under our protection."

Yifan lets his shoulders slump down, all his vigor leaving his body for a second, before he continues:

"I can imagine that you think Lu Han will kill Li Nan. That's not the case. He's just going to scare him a little. If I go easy on the people working for me, nobody will take me seriously – I _need_ people to fear me, otherwise the whole thing won’t work. On the other hand, I’m generous to those who serve me right. And Li Nan, well... he took advantage of the situation we have with Wang and tried to scam us, that can't be tolerated."

"You know, I have the feeling that all of your issues are really rooted in that Wang guy, whoever he is."

"He's one of my Red Poles."

"God. I hate myself for asking but - what is a Red Pole?"

Yifan chuckles, then he says:

"Red Poles are people who have a few men under their command. They've got operating areas and they're kind of like my minions."

"So... they're gang leaders."

"Yeah. Sort of. They act in my name though. I mostly do the organizational stuff, you know. I tell them what to do and they take the deeds out on the streets. And Wang is usually a guy that has never brought problems. It just kind of worked, and I never had to worry about his operating area. I sometimes even lost him on my radar because he’s one of those people who pay on time and never cause a fuss. But now him and his men have been missing for about two months and everything's going to shit."

"Huh."

Yixing feels his senses tingling, like he wants to know more but he feels that if he keeps asking questions, he's going to be too deep to be ever leaving this apartment and getting back to a normal life. Of course, he’s searched info about triads on the internet given the chance – and what he read made him worry, because he hasn’t found any stories about people leaving a triad that hadn’t had a hard time doing so.

"Please don't fear me. I really don't have the intention to hurt you."

Yixing heaves a sigh and rubs his face with one of his hands, before he slips, not even knowing why exactly:

“When did your father die?”

“Last year,” Yifan answers immediately, because he senses that if he gives Yixing the information he wants to have, he might get by a little more easily.

“Was he... old?”

Yixing likes to believe that Yifan’s father has died a natural death, but he has the premonition that this is not the case.

“He was 50.”

“So no natural death, I reckon.”

“He got shot.”

The student nods to indicate that he’s processing the information. He is trying to put everything into a perspective – one in which the two types of persons that Yifan displays fit together. There’s the plant based super cook who gently cares for Yixing, and then there’s the triad boss that distributes girls over KTVs. It’s a weird picture, like Yifan is pulling some Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing.

“Was he being shot because of his work?”

 _God, shit, Yixing, stop asking all these questions_ , Yixing scolds himself, knowing very well he won’t listen to his conscious anyways. Yifan takes a long breath before he says:

“It’s not quite clear. But we have our suspicions. The assassin was a very skilled one and we can only assume who gave the order. It’s not enough to pin them on it though.”

Judging from the look on Yifan’s face, it does hurt him, the fact that he doesn’t know why his father had to die and who is the one to blame. Yixing can only imagine what that must feel like, and triad member or not, that is nothing you want anyone to live through.

“What about your mother?”

“She’s just... gone,” Yifan answers in a very low voice. When he sees the questioning look on Yixing’s face, he adds, “She left shortly after my father’s deputy got denounced for his betrayal. She wasn’t a bad person, not at all. In fact, I think, she was too pure hearted to be able to bear the life of a triad-wife any longer.”

“But why didn’t she take you with you then?”

Yifan shrugs his shoulders.

“Guess I was too involved already. Getting out alone is difficult enough as it is. I don’t know.”

He is trying to sound like he’s not holding that against her, but Yixing feels that his mother leaving him might have left a bigger impact, maybe to such a degree it explains part of the behavior patterns he’s showing. Yixing’s body loosens up again, along with the feeling of pity that starts stirring in his chest.

“You actually remind me of her. Sort of,” Yifan mutters and blushes slightly when he looks at Yixing.

Yixing cannot hold back a snort before he asks:

“Wow. How so?”

“Not necessarily in your looks, don’t worry,” Yifan answers. “It’s more like a feeling that I have when you’re around. It reminds me of the time when she used to roam through our house. I mean... I don't exactly remember the things she did do or say, but... when I saw her, there was _warmth_. My mind was at peace. It's kind of like the same feeling when I see you walking through the door."

Yixing is so taken by surprise, any witty comeback about a weird Oedipus Complex gets stuck in his throat. He has been complimented a few times in his life, in the one or the other way, the usual stuff people told him when they wanted to leave an impression on him, but none of those things had been like what Yifan had just said. He doesn't want to admit, but the words get through to him and they touch something deep down in his soul, making the events of the afternoon forgotten. Without a word, Yixing scoots closer to the other one, throws his arms around Yifan's arm and places his head on his broad shoulder. Yifan flinches for a second, not used to Yixing actually searching for body contact. When he realizes that he's not going to draw back in the next few seconds, Yifan lets the hand of his other arm slip over to gently hold one of Yixing's.

"Curry," Yixing suddenly says, referring to Yifan's question what he wants to eat. "Like, the one that you did last week, I think?"

It takes a few beats until Yifan understands where the other is coming from, and he chuckles.

"Anything you want."

Yixing lifts his head, just in time for Yifan to turn his and it makes their noses touch - their lips aren't though, but there's a weird electric feeling hanging in the air. It makes it hard for them not to close the last remaining gap of a few inches.

"You could add more spice though this time..." Yixing says, hearing his own voice from very far away as his eyes dart over the smooth skin of Yifan's face and with every word he says, he's getting closer, until his lips ghost over the other's, just enough to leave room to imagine how a real kiss would feel like.

It makes Yixing's whole body vibrate in a very new fit of anticipation, something he can't really understand. He doesn't understand what exactly it is that draws him to the other in this very moment, but the warm feeling rushing through his system when Yifan leans in to make their foreheads touch feels too good to put an end to it. He's sure he doesn't deliberately make the decision to curl his lips slightly, thus inviting Yifan to finally seal their lips, but when Yifan does, Yixing’s mind starts spinning - it's like that short-lived sugar rush after having a can of coke as a kid. The tingling in his nervous system when Yifan is putting more pressure on his lips, when he tilts his head to the side and lets his tongue slide over Yixing's bottom lip in a swift movement makes Yixing think that maybe both of them need that kind of proximity to another person badly.

The younger of the two lets out a pleased sigh as Yifan pulls him closer by the neck while the other takes the lead over the kiss they share, teasing Yixing with his tongue and teeth, very straight-forward and demanding, yet wary and gentle to not scare him away again. When Yixing starts to pick up on the faster pace and buries one of his hands in Yifan's hair, Yifan seems to realize what is going on.

Suddenly, he breaks the kiss with a last smooching sound and he blinks confused while Yixing holds his breath for a second. They stare at each other, then Yifan clears his throat and says:

"I... um... I should make dinner."

With that being said, he turns his head away and gets up quickly to hover over to the kitchen. Yixing lets out the breath he was holding, then takes another deep breath to calm down his heart pounding against his ribcage. While Yifan keeps himself busy gathering all the ingredients for the curry, probably spending more time than needed looking into the fridge to cool down his hot and red face, there's only one thought spinning around in Yixing's mind: _What the heck. What was that?!_


	3. Chapter 3

Part III

One of Yixing's favorite places in Yifan's apartment is probably the roof terrace, especially in the evenings when dusk falls over the city and the sun disappears behind the horizon. It's become a habit of his to just lounge around and watch the sun set behind the western part of Changsha, which had a soothing effect on his mind during the finals week. He's tried hard to keep his focus on his studies, despite all the shit going on with Yifan and the triad stuff, and he's surprised how easy it has been to shut Yifan out of his mind for at least the time he was taking his exams. Today he had to take the last one and even though he feels like he hasn't done too well, he doesn't think that he's failed and that's the best feeling you can start your semester holidays with. _Bye bitches. See you in a few weeks._

He takes a deep breath and stretches himself out on the big terrace sofa and curls his toes. What is he going to do with all his free time now? Will Yifan actually let him leave the house now that he's not obligated to head to university for a while? Most of his classmates have gone home to their families which are scattered all across China. He probably won’t even see them until the next semester starts.

Yixing's thought process gets interrupted by the Yifan who slides the door to the terrace open and leans against its frame. He lifts both of his hands, one holding up two wine glasses between his long fingers, one presenting an expensive looking bottle of the alcoholic beverage.

"Fancy some wine? I've had a _shit day_ and I need to drown my brain cells in some alcohol."

Yixing nods and sits back up to give Yifan some space on the sofa. While he watches the other one serving the wine, he asks:

"How shitty was it?"

"Don't get me started," Yifan groans and rolls his eyes. "On a scale from zero to ten, this would've been a solid eleven."

"Poor you," Yixing says, almost slipping a 'baby' instead of 'you' and he wants to bite his tongue off.

"Thanks. Tell me something nice to take my mind off work for a moment please," Yifan responds and hands Yixing a filled glass.

"Well... I finished my exams and I'm pretty sure I haven't failed any, so that's a good thing."

Yifan lets out a squeal, then he lifts his drink.

"A toast to you, then!"

 _Wine is weird_ , Yixing thinks. It's by far not as strong as Vodka or Whiskey, but it gets into his head far quicker than other drinks. He doesn’t really want to get to the bottom of that though. Still, it is a bit embarrassing when he feels the wine flushing his cheeks after the first three sips while Yifan doesn't seem to be as affected.

"So, any plans for the holidays?" Yifan asks and leans back into the sofa.

"Not really."

"You don't plan on going somewhere?"

"Well. I didn't plan on going back home like my friends if you imply that," Yixing says and takes another sip - even though his tongue gets heavier every time the wine coats his lips, he starts chattering away. "Me and my family aren't too close. They don't expect me to come home except for Spring Festival. And even then it's just... really forced."

"Why's that?"

"Wow, that's like the first time you actually ask things about me," Yixing comments.

"Cocky," Yifan shoots back. "I'm more the observer kind of guy. I watch you, therefore I learn more about you. But some things can't be learned with just observing another person's behavior. So?"

"That sounds creepy."

"Yixing, I'm a triad boss. Observing people is really not on the Top 5 of creepy or uncomfortable things I've done."

"Touché."

Yifan chuckles and grabs the bottle as Yixing empties his drink. The student knows he should probably leave it at that, but he still holds the glass up for a refill. When the bottle is back on the table in front of them, Yixing sighs and says:

"You know, maybe your observation has led you to that conclusion already then, but if not: I'm gay. And my family is kind of traditional and stuff and they don’t really… approve of that. They think I need to see a doctor about it and try to talk me into that every time I come over. It's extremely annoying. So I try to avoid them most of the time."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," Yifan says, sincerity resonating in his voice.

"I've made my peace with it," Yixing shrugs, taking another gulp from the wine.

"Still. That's not how you should treat your child."

"Well, let's say they're pretty upset they can't count on me to carry on our family's bloodline. And since I don’t have any siblings, our family will probably end with me. Which sucks for them."

"Old traditional views," Yifan wrinkles his nose. "Our society should get their heads out of their asses. There are too many Chinese people anyways, why does everyone want us to have kids?! I mean, look at all these clogged-up streets in the big cities. There are way too many people polluting this goddamn planet. The Chinese ethnicity won’t die out just because a few of us don’t want to fuck someone with a vagina."

Yixing can't help but to laugh at that statement. He thinks that his laugh is rather annoying, but Yifan hasn't complained about it yet. Other people before liked to point out just how loud and obnoxious Yixing sounds when doing so. Yifan though... he just snorts along and even starts chuckling, as if getting infected by it. And that feels good.

"So. You've got no travel plans until the next semester starts?" Yifan asks when their laughter gets drowned in another sip of wine.

"No."

Yifan takes a long look into his glass, then he peeks back at Yixing. He curls his lips, then he says:

"Then... why don't we just go somewhere?"

"Huuuuh?"

It's probably the alcohol that makes his brain shut down, so his responses are even more delayed than usual. Yifan rolls his eyes.

"I mean... I don't know about you but I could use some time off. The city won't burn up in flames if I leave for a few days."

"Where would you want to go?" Yixing asks after hesitating for a few moments and watches as Yifan puts his glass down.

"Hm. Macao. Hong Kong. Taiwan... although... maybe not Macao, I've had a slight gambling problem in the past... might be triggering some things."

“Well then. Not Macao,” Yixing says. “Why off the Mainland?”

“Why not? I’ve got some friends in Hong Kong, I haven’t seen them in a while.”

“Huh,” Yixing says and puts his glass down on the table. When he leans back again, he scoots closer to Yifan. “How would you introduce me? As your triad-intern?”

Yifan snorts, and when he launches a response, Yixing slips onto his lap. The words get stuck in Yifan’s throat at the sudden move.

“Would I be your triad member in training?” Yixing asks, knowing very well how cocky that sounds.

Yifan scoffs as he’s at loss for words and leans back a little when Yixing puts his hands on the back of the sofa.

“You are making this... _so hard_ on me...” Yifan presses out between a thin line of lips, while Yixing still doesn’t quite understand how he could end up in his lap – that wasn’t planned in the slightest.

This is just one of the many things he’s never planned to happen. Another thing is probably finding Yifan that attractive knowing what he knows about the other. Because shit, he is a handsome motherfucker. If Yifan had been crossing his path during a regular bar or club visit, and he’d have hit on him, Yixing would’ve gone home with him without hesitation.

“What do you mean?” He asks and Yifan grunts, then he proceeds to cross his arms behind his head, as if trying to avoid Yixing.

“It’s hard for me to keep my hands off you.”

Yixing tilts his head in question, still resting on Yifan’s thighs, and frowns. He doesn’t really understand what the other implies, since Yifan’s been very good at keeping his hands off him in the last days. It seemed like after the incident on the couch, Yifan had been tiptoeing around Yixing, not daring to touch him even casually like he used to. It kind of annoys Yixing, even though his pride won’t let him admit that.

“You shouldn’t... I mean... you should not think that I expect you to do certain things, just because you’re here,” Yifan explains while his ears are turning red from the shame he feels when saying those words.

It’s so cute, it almost makes Yixing squeal, and he gets reminded how soft Yifan can be if he wants to. The wine is surely playing another huge part in his behavior but when Yifan is too flustered to look at him directly, still keeping his hands behind his head, Yixing scoots closer and says:

“But what if I don’t want you to?”

“To what?”

“Keep your hands off me.”

It rolls off his tongue way too easily. And instead of maybe trying to take those words back and get out of this situation as soon as possible, Yixing adds:

“I like the way you used to touch me.”

Yifan looks up to him, kind of dumbfounded, and his hands slowly sink down, coming to a rest on Yixing’s thighs. He still doesn’t seem to be too convinced.

“Are you... serious?”

Yixing lowers his gaze to Yifan’s hands placed on his jeans and he suddenly remembers how weird he thought they looked like when he first met Yifan. When Yixing realized how big they were as Yifan had become a regular and handed him one red Yuan bill after another. It had thrown him off a little. But now, after seeing what they can do, how they prepare food, iron dress shirts, or touch Yixing, he doesn’t see them as that weird anymore. To be completely honest, he’s caught himself staring at them every once in a while, and when he does, he also can’t help but to have quite non-innocent thoughts about them which he tried to abandon in the far back of his mind as quickly as possible. But now, while Yifan’s thumb is caressing his inner thigh, those thoughts resurface and Yixing feels a knot tying up his stomach. He brings himself to nod, then he puts his hands over Yifan’s and slowly guides them up to his hips.

“Put your hands on me.”

Yifan exhales sharply, then his hands slip under Yixing’s shirt and he pulls him close. Yixing throws his arms around Yifan’s shoulders and makes their foreheads touch. While one of his hands gets tangled up in Yifan’s soft hair, Yifan’s own start exploring Yixing’s skin underneath his shirt, very slowly. His breath fans across Yixing’s face, who smells the faint scent of wine and Yifan’s aftershave which is a very deadly combination. The student closes his eyes, his mind intoxicated by the alcohol, then he leans forward and puts his lips on Yifan’s.

The walls break immediately. Both of their lips part to invite the other’s tongue to enter their mouths, teasing each other with bared teeth against the soft skin of their lips. Yixing occasionally bites down on Yifan’s bottom lip, thus eliciting a pleased grunt out of Yifan’s throat. His hands have long grabbed Yixing’s butt and press him even closer into his lap, making their crotches rub against each other’s pants. While Yifan works his tongue back into Yixing’s mouth to regain the control he’s allowed Yixing to have for the moment, Yixing’s hands wander over Yifan’s neck to his shoulders, before one of them starts fumbling at the first button of the other’s shirt. He doesn’t even do it on purpose. It’s like his sub-conscious has made the decision that the clothes need to go. When Yifan notices, Yixing has managed to open the first button and he breaks away from his lips to grab his hand. Yixing frowns as he stops him from going further.

“Not here,” Yifan explains curtly and nods into the direction of his neighbor whose terrace borders his own behind a thin wooden privacy screen. They share a few more kisses, before Yifan mumbles against Yixing’s lips, “Bedroom?”

Yixing nods immediately, feeling excitement stir in his stomach and he lets out a squeal when Yifan gets up and carries him into the apartment. He clings onto the other, his face buried in Yifan’s neck to place a few more hot kisses on the skin. Yifan opens the door to his bedroom with a light kick of his foot, walks over to the big bed and lets Yixing gently down on the mattress. Yixing wants to pull the other down with him, but after another kiss, Yifan retreats and positions himself in front of Yixing. The student looks up to him, not really knowing what to expect and watches as Yifan presses his lips together as if hesitating for a second, then he unbuttons his shirt. When he slides it off his shoulders and exposes the skin beneath, Yixing’s eyes lock with Yifan’s right shoulder and collarbone.

“Waoooo... what...?!” He exclaims and Yifan heaves a sigh, as if wanting to say ‘Yeah, there we go again’.

Yifan’s right shoulder shows the claw of a tattooed dragon, giving the illusion of the animal digging into the muscle. Yifan grunts, then he turns around and reveals the rest of the tattoo that stretches from his shoulder blades all over his back to the tailbone. Yixing’s jaw drops open when he sees it.

“I was eighteen and I thought I was cool,” Yifan explains and rubs his neck.

Yixing scoots close and traces the outlines of the dragon with his fingers. With time passing by, the colors have faded, yet the outlines are still clear.

“How long did that take to finish?” Yixing asks as he discovers more and more little details put under the other’s skin.

“Well... the outlining was a six hour session, everything else was just... session after session and endless pain. Maybe six months until everything was finished.”

Yifan turns around again and chuckles when he sees Yixing’s big eyes and opened mouth.

“I could never do that,” Yixing states.

“Huh... I do regret it,” Yifan admits and cups Yixing’s face, “It’s just... _so cliché_. A triad boss and a big ass dragon tattoo on his back. I really didn’t think that through. My father called me a ‘stupid idiot’ when I came home with the outline on my back.”

Yixing grins then he hooks his fingers into the pockets of Yifan’s pants to bring him down to his eyelevel with gentle force.

“Let me look at it a little longer, please.”

Yifan can’t keep himself from rolling his eyes, but lays down on his stomach and presents the picture to Yixing who seats himself on his thighs. He doesn’t have a single clue about tattoos, since he’s never planned on getting one himself. This looks absolutely amazing though, even in – or maybe because of – his ignorant eyes. Without giving it too much of a thought, Yixing dives down and puts soft kisses on the motive. Yifan jumps at first, but seemingly relaxes and even lets out a few pleased sighs as Yixing kisses his way up from his tailbone to his shoulder blade, occasionally tracing the outlines with his tongue.

When he’s reached his shoulder, he turns Yifan on his back, kissing his way from the picture over Yifan's collarbones down to his chest. When Yixing's tongue swirls over his nipple, his teeth stimulating the much more sensitive part of skin, Yifan lets out a low but long grunt. Yixing smiles when he hears that and sits back up again. The man beneath him looks up to him, with a slight pout on his face, almost as if begging for Yixing to come back and cover his skin in kisses. The other can't help but to enjoy that sort of power he has over Yifan, so he sits down on his hips, curling his lips into a naughty smile while he finally takes off his shirt in a slow and teasing speed. When he throws it onto the floor and looks back at Yifan, the other sits up and wraps his arms tightly around Yixing's torso. As their skins touch, both of them shudder in pleasure and Yifan traces the lines of Yixing's collarbones with his lips. One hand slides over the faint outline of Yixing's abs, over his chest, and comes to a rest behind his neck before Yifan pulls him close and kisses him once again.

"Stunning, Yixing," Yifan mumbles against his lips, before he retreats and takes another long, avid look at the other.

Yixing's answer is another kiss in which he pulls Yifan's head back at his hair and his tongue parts Yifan's lips - Yifan, in return, melts into it and lets Yixing take the lead, not even trying to put up a fight. Yixing feels the other’s hands all over his back and arms, before they wander down and Yifan's fingertips try to slip under his quite tight jeans. Yixing undoes them for the other, thus giving him better access and he sighs when Yifan's warm hands slide over the skin of his butt, pinching the cheeks every now and then. He feels his cock hardening at those simple moves and he pushes his hips a little forward, just to give Yifan the notice.

"Someone seems excited," the taller man teases and Yixing rolls his eyes.

"You're the one to talk," he hisses back and reaches down between Yifan's legs - without any further ado, he buries his hands inside Yifan's pants and wraps his hand around Yifan's dick which makes Yifan roll his eyes up and bite his bottom lip. "You're not any better than me."

"Hnnnggg..." Yifan answers as Yixing starts working his hand around his length.

Their pants are really in the way though, so Yixing lets go and decides to strip them both off the annoying pieces of clothes, right along with their underwear. Yifan wants to protest at first but when he notices Yixing tugging at his trousers, he helps and lifts his hips so Yixing can pull them off better. Yixing loses his own pants shortly after, not quite as swift and smooth as he wanted to, but when he sits back onto Yifan's lap and they feel their crotches grinding up against each other, both release a moan. The smaller one feels himself getting impatient and starts rolling his hips against Yifan’s, hoping the grinding will help both of their dicks rise to full erection.

When that doesn’t help too well, he just takes both of his hands and wraps them around their semi hard-ons. Yifan rolls his eyes back and he needs one arm to support himself on the mattress as his dick gets stimulated not only by Yixing’s hands but also his dick that rubs against his own. A low and pleasured grunt motivates Yixing to speed up his hand movements, soon smearing both their precum over their cocks. He feels the first waves of an orgasm building up in his lap while the sounds of Yifan’s soft moans and the slick sound of his doing resound in the room – and no, that’s not how he’s going to have it tonight.

“Yifan,” he huffs and slows down again, “Please?”

Yifan understands and gives Yixing a hard kiss before Yixing releases their leaking cocks and the other leans over to the night stand to get the lube and a condom. There’s a moment of hesitation between them, like Yifan isn’t quite sure what kind of role Yixing wants to play now. It’s not like they’ve ever elaborated positions and role dynamics during sex. One of them needs to make a decision right now, and both of their dicks pressing against their stomachs make clear that the decision needs to be made quickly.

Yixing therefore grabs the lube and flicks the cap open, then puts some of it on Yifan’s fingers. When he deems enough of the fluid covering his digits, Yixing guides Yifan’s hand to his butt.

“Fast, okay, I _hate_ that part.”

Yifan nods, then scoots closer, circling his first finger around Yixing’s muscle ring, before he slowly enters him. One finger isn’t that bad. It’s never bad with just one. So Yixing takes that quite easily and he sinks down on the digit, even enjoying it to a certain degree. He forgets about both their erections for the time and leans back, hands placed behind him on Yifan’s thighs to somehow meet him half way.

When Yifan adds the second finger, he bites his lips to distract himself from what’s going on with his butt hole. Yifan goes in slowly, knuckle by knuckle, then he scissors him open. Yixing feels Yifan’s lips on his neck that shower him with hot kisses - the gesture makes him heave a pleased sigh.

“Third one?” Yifan asks, kind of misinterpreting that sound, but Yixing nods nonetheless.

The third finger makes Yixing whimper, but he doesn’t know if it’s because of the stretch that’s a tad too uncomfortable, or the amazing feeling of Yifan’s digits sliding up and down his walls – it gives him a taste of Yifan’s dick filling him up, and that thought alone almost gets him off. When Yifan’s buried his fingers deep inside of Yixing, and the stretch is actually comfortable, the smaller one wiggles his body in Yifan’s lap.

“Condom,” Yixing says while he starts going up and down Yifan’s digits.

Yifan searches blindly for the condom that has landed somewhere in the sheets, and when he’s found it, Yixing takes it out of his hand.

“I’ll do it,” he huffs because he doesn’t think Yifan is smooth enough to open the pack with one hand and then pulling it over his pulsing erection twitching between his legs.

Yifan lets him and gets back to put his focus onto his fingers that are still up Yixing’s ass and he pulls them out, only to push them back into him. Yixing gasps and stops ripping the pack open when he does it another time, because then Yifan hits that spot of Yixing’s that gets him off.

“Don’t,” he hisses, as Yifan keeps finger fucking him, “How am I supposed to... uuuh! Fuck!”

His whole body starts shaking as Yifan’s hands keep pushing back into him – if he can’t get his dick soon, he’s probably going to cum by just the penetration of three fingers. No. That’s not going to happen here, for fuck’s sake!

Yixing pushes Yifan back into the pillows, causing the taller one to pull out his fingers. As quickly as his shaking hands allow him to, he gets the condom out of the packaging and pulls it over Yifan’s dick. Then he lifts his hips, slowly sitting down on his girth, inch by inch. He inhales sharply when he feels the stretch, but he keeps going, because experience has shown him that a steady movement works better, at least for him. Yifan rolls his eyes back at the feeling of Yixing’s hole embracing his dick and digs his fingers into the flesh of Yixing’s thighs. Having the whole of Yifan’s length inside of him almost makes Yixing forget how to breathe and the first shallow movements of his hips make him grunt.

“You... okay...?” Yifan huffs, and opens his eyes again to check on Yixing.

Yixing can only nod quickly, then he concentrates on the feeling of Yifan’s dick brushing against his walls, not stretching his entrance to a slight uncomfortable extent. Yifan seems to sense the little discomfort so he grabs the hand that’s still got lube on it and wraps it around Yixing’s cock. Along with the slow and hesitant moves of Yixing’s hips, he works his hand up and down Yixing’s erection, twisting his hand and occasionally flicking his thumb over the slit. The distraction works and Yixing allows himself to bolder moves and a slight different angle for which he leans forward and places his hands on Yifan’s chest. His fingers dig into the flesh, leaving visible marks, which Yifan responds to with a tighter grip around Yixing’s pulsing cock.

Yifan spends quite some time focusing on Yixing’s hips lifting up from his own dick and sitting back down on it, one moan after another falling from his lips to praise what the other one is doing right now. Yixing, on the other hand, enjoys riding himself on Yifan, to set the pace and even tease the other in varying the speed of his thrusts. When he lifts up his hips quickly, only to sink back down slowly, Yifan gets impatient and fights himself back up into a seating position. He grabs Yixing by the nape of the neck with his other hand and demands a hard kiss from the other. While he bites into Yixing’s bottom lip, his hand lets go of Yixing’s cock and his hands grab the other’s hip to push him to the side and change their position. Yixing lets out a surprised gasp, because he kind of expected to fuck himself on Yifan’s dick to his orgasm. The first thrust that hits Yixing, getting his prostate along with it, shows him that this will not be the case though. He throws his head back into the sheets and lets out a long moan.

“There, huh?” Yifan huffs and starts rolling his hips, continuously hitting that sweet spot of Yixing’s.

Yixing can’t even bring himself to say anything, so he simply nods, another moan parting his lips, his legs spreading further apart to give Yifan even more access. One hand wraps around his own cock and starts pumping, the other one slides over Yifan’s shoulder and upper body, not really knowing what to do or where to go.

“So... close...” Yixing manages to squeeze out in between his moans as his hand becomes in synch with Yifan’s thrusts who, upon hearing that, picks up his pace and just keeps going, over and over, again and again, until the feeling of Yifan sliding in and out of Yixing is so overwhelming, the smaller one needs to let go of himself and hold onto Yifan’s arms.

He’s lost his complete sense of orientation and can only concentrate on Yifan’s dick penetrating his prostate, and Yifan’s lips showering his neck and collarbones with kisses and bites. It’s too much, and the feeling is so incredible, every thrust sends shivers through his whole body and brings him closer to his orgasm. He curses under his breath, as Yifan almost pulls out completely and thrusts right back into him.

“Fuck! _Fuck_!”

With a long moan, Yixing gives in and lets his climax take over. His whole body jerks as his cum coats his stomach and Yifan shudders himself, cumming with the next push into Yixing’s hole. Yixing can only watch through fluttering eyelids how Yifan rolls his own eyes back and bites his bottom lip in pleasure, releasing a low groan as he enjoys the blissful feeling of his own high. Then, he starts rolling his hips again, slowly but steadily, to bring them both through their orgasms. Still shaking, Yifan buries his face in Yixing’s neck and presses his body against him. Yixing can’t move just yet - he doesn’t even feel his legs in this very moment.

It takes some time, but eventually Yifan rolls off him and pulls out to get rid of the condom. Their bodies are sticky with sweat, and if it wasn’t for Yifan handing Yixing some tissues to clean the mess on his torso, they’d be even more disgusting. But as soon as Yixing gets rid of the traces of his orgasm, he rolls over and wraps his body around Yifan’s who’s lying back down again. Yifan doesn’t seem to mind - in fact, he pulls him even closer and buries his nose in Yixing’s damp hair.

“Admit it, that’s what you wanted to do all along,” Yixing says when both of their breaths have calmed down.

He supports his head on one hand to have a better look at Yifan who blows out his cheeks at the comment.

“I can’t even find a comeback to that,” Yifan tries to dodge an answer.

“It’s okay,” Yixing responds. “It’s actually kind of cute how long you’ve courted me, only to get me naked.”

“Hey, stop, my intentions were not _that_ primitive!” Yifan cries out.

“Okay, so the first time you saw me, you didn’t think ‘I want to tap that ass’?” Yixing asks with a smirk on his face.

“Honey, you don’t have an ass to begin with...” Yixing’s mouth falls open in outrage and Yifan adds quickly to pacify him, “... You’ve got extremely nice thighs to make up for that!”

Yixing pauses for a second and contemplates if Yifan should still get a slap in the face for that. Yifan seizes that opportunity and says:

“Actually, the first time I visited that bar... I mean... yeah, I saw you and thought ‘Wow, what a hot piece of man, how can I get him laid?’ but... during the course of the evening I was watching you and I developed a ridiculous crush.”

“That really does sound ridiculous. I don’t even really remember what happened that night...” Yixing says, but still feeling a little giddy when he hears those words.

“It was probably a night like any other for you. But... ugh, Yixing, don’t make me say _that_!”

Yifan gets flustered again and rubs his eyes with the one hand that isn’t holding on to Yixing’s waist.

“Tell me!” Yixing demands and showers Yifan’s face with little kisses. “I won’t laugh!”

“Oh no, you probably won’t, but you’ll crush me with another of your super sarcastic bitchy comments,” Yifan responds with a disdainful snort.

“I promise not to!”

The answer is a grunt on Yifan’s behalf, but he eventually gives up. His arm flops down on the pillow next to his head and he says, his eyes set on the ceiling to avoid looking at Yixing:

“I just thought you were really cute. Yeah. Cute. I said that. And... well, the initial ‘How can I fuck that guy?’ turned into ‘How can I make that guy notice me and how can I get to know him without coming off like a total jackass?’ and then, after like, three more visits I kept asking Lu Han and Tao how I could actually get to make you _like_ me, like I was a stupid teenage girl crushing on the heartthrob of her school. Tao and Lu Han thought I was crazy.”

Hearing that, Yixing feels his heart skipping a beat and then going at a way faster pace that pumps a rush of joy through his veins. It is ridiculous. Wu Yifan, the ruthless triad boss reigning the underground scene of Changsha, developing a crush on a waiter in a bar.

“That’s cute, actually,” Yixing brings himself to say, before he starts giggling.

“See? I shouldn’t have said anything,” Yifan rolls his eyes.

“What did Tao and Lu Han say?” Yixing asks, ignoring the other’s remark on purpose.

Yifan looks back at Yixing, then he says with a very dry tone in his voice, probably imitating Lu Han:

“Boss, drink your Gin Tonic and get your shit back together.”

“I probably would’ve told you the same.”

“Amazing!” Yifan grunts, and Yixing leans down to kiss him softly.

“It’s really cute, though,” he then whispers against Yifan’s lips and feels the other curling them into a smile.

After exchanging a few more lazy kisses, Yifan reaches over to press the light switch. They then turn around and Yifan wraps his arms around Yixing from behind. Pressed against Yifan’s body, feeling his heartbeat against his back, Yixing intertwines their fingers and is glad that it’s dark and Yifan can’t see the smile creeping on his face.

“Good night,” Yifan says and plants a kiss on Yixing’s ear that has probably been misplaced because he couldn’t aim for his temple in the dark.

“Good night,” Yixing sighs and feels fatigue getting a hold of him – he’ll probably have one of the best night’s sleeps he’s ever had in this house.

***

Yixing wakes up to the usual sound of Yifan working in the kitchen, and for a split second, a feeling of regret rushes through his system as he realizes that _this_ has actually happened. He's slept with Yifan. And he actually liked it. _A lot._

Yixing slowly sits up and takes a long look around Yifan's bedroom, which looks kind of sterile, like those perfect showrooms at IKEA. The only thing indicating that a person is using this room are Yixing's clothes that are scattered around the floor. Yifan has put his own clothes away. The man swings his legs over the brink of the bed, reciprocating how he's ever gotten to this point to be sleeping with such a dangerous man that is Wu Yifan. The last few weeks are a total blurr though, and a cllusterfuck of different scenes unfolding in front of him that won’t give a definite answer. Yixing grunts and gets up from the bed, and when he's sure that Yifan is still going about in the kitchen, he walks over to the big closet and opens it.

As expected, everything is neatly stored and hung on hangers, sorted by color, even if there's barely any to begin with since Yifan likes to keep his wardrobe in simple black and white. It's like Yifan is trying hard to get structure into every aspect of his life, maybe because most of the time, the structure that surrounds him is a little chaotic as he's never really aware of what is actually going on within the rows of his Red Poles.

Yixing checks the shirts that Yifan rarely wears. He usually walks around in well fitted dress shirts - actually, Yixing cannot remember that he's ever seen him in a plain white T-Shirt, even though he clearly has a stash of them right here. Yixing grabs the one on top of it and smells the detergent. The floral scent can still be faintly detected. It won't quite fit to the man who distributes prostitutes over KTVs and sells drugs over the Vietnamese border, but on the other hand it does fit to the man refusing to consume any kind of animal products and indulging in Netflix shows after a long and draining day. It's almost as if Yifan is playing a different role the moment he steps out of the apartment and into the public.

A role.

Which is what Yixing has to take on too now. The moment he let himself get caught between Yifan's sheets was the moment that sealed his fate to play the role of a loving and supportive boyfriend who'll be waiting for him at the end of the day. The thought hits him out of nowhere, and it's surprising how he doesn't even hesitate when he puts Yifan's shirt over his head to wear it. On his way out, he grabs his boxers and puts them on, then he walks over to the kitchen where Yifan has his back turned to Yixing to take a look at the content of the fridge. Yixing walks over to him on his tip toes and throws his arms around Yifan's torso who jumps at the movement.

"Morning," Yixing mumbles into Yifan's black dress shirt and buries his face in his broad back.

"Wow, it really needed my dick up your ass to get some cuddles from you?" Yifan chuckles and turns around, holding up a pack of imported almond milk in one hand while the other one wanders down to said body part.

"Yeah I never really do the usual order..." Yixing mumbles as Yifan closes the fridge door.

Yixing steps back and lets Yifan shuffle to the stove, then Yifan says, "How'd you sleep?" Yixing can never answer the question, because when Yifan pours the milk into a pot to cook some oatmeal, he freezes and takes a long look at the other one. "Wait, is that my shirt?"

"Oh. Yeah! It is!" Yixing says, playing innocent and pulls the shirt a little further down his legs. He knows exactly how cute he must be looking with that oversized shirt and his ruffled hair – Yifan’s eyes growing wide at the sight are the proof for that assumption. "I figured if you don't wear them, might as well wear them myself."

Yifan scoffs, as if he wants to inquire why Yixing was snooping around in his closet to begin with. After setting the pot aside so the milk won't burn, Yifan turns around to stride over to Yixing with two big steps and lifts him up on the counter of the island in one swift movement. Yixing throws his legs around Yifan's hips instinctively.

"You think you can just wear my clothes without facing consequences, huh?"

His big hands slip under the shirt and Yixing's body immediately vibrates in anticipation. Yixing's legs pull Yifan a little closer and his hips almost push over the edge of the counter, then he says:

"I guess I wanted to see your reaction."

Yixing gets pushed down completely onto the worktop, then Yifan pulls the shirt up to expose Yixing's chest and place a few kisses over the skin. Yifan's lips still feel a little weird against his body, a new sensation that he first has to get accustomized to, but when Yifan's tongue is dipping over one of Yixing's nipples, he throws his head back and sighs, showing clearly that he likes the attention Yifan's giving him.

Right when Yifan's face is wandering farther down his body, Yifan's phone next to them goes off which immediately destroys any build up mood. Yifan grunts, places another kiss over Yixing's navel, then pulls his shirt down and answers the phone.

"Yeah, Lu Han?"

Lu Han doesn't talk as loud as Tao, so Yixing cannot hear what the man at the other end of the line is telling him. Judging from the look on Yifan's face, it's something rather confusing. He frowns, then says:

"So what exactly does that mean? - Yeah. - Okay... okay, yes, I'll come over."

"Duties are calling..." Yixing sing songs and sits back up while Yifan hangs up with a heavy sigh.

"Why is this my life..." Yifan grunts and leans against Yixing's shoulder.

"We could go on a quest on finding out, but I think that would take a while to elaborate."

The older one grunts, but then kisses Yixing's cheek.

"When I come home, I want to pick up where we left off."

"So you want me to sit right here so you can do me on that kitchen counter?"

Yifan stops short as if thinking about Yixing's words for a second, then he says:

"I wouldn't say no to that but if you want to move during the day I won't be mad either."

Yixing giggles when he hears that and Yifan stuffs his phone into his back pocket. When he grabs the car keys that he's tossed onto the worktop yesterday, he turns around again to take a last look at Yixing who's dangling his feet off the counter.

"You know. Wear the shirt though when I come back."

"Kinky!" Yixing cries out, and Yifan finally leaves with a last goodbye.

Yixing is left on the counter, feeling a little mad to have gotten cockblocked by Lu Han.

***

Yixing doesn't hear from Yifan throughout the whole day which isn't too unusual, but when it's almost midnight and Yifan still hasn't even left a single text message, Yixing starts to get worried.

The thought almost makes him laugh - him, worried about a triad boss who's probably better at taking care of his life than any other person on this goddamn planet. Yet, Yixing can't help but to worry because usually, Yifan would get back to him in one way or the other.

Yixing spends the evening browsing through Netflix and eventually falls asleep on the couch, still wearing Yifan's shirt and carrying his scent with him the whole day. He's not in a deep sleep, which explains why he jerks awake when he hears the lock clicking and Yifan coming home. The fatigue is still winning over him though so he can't bring his limbs to move and he just listens to Yifan's steps getting closer before the man appears at his side. He looks drained and stressed, like anyone after a very long day of work would look like.

"Why aren't you in bed?" Yifan asks.

"Guess I fell asleep waiting for you," Yixing yawns and Yifan bends down to kiss his forehead.

Then, his arms slip under Yixing's body and he lifts him up bridal style, as if Yixing weighs nothing. The younger throws his arms around Yifan's neck who starts carrying him to his bedroom. When he lays Yixing down on the sheets, Yixing expects Yifan to stay with him and go to bed to take a rest after whatever's happened. But Yifan doesn't lay down and places another kiss on his cheek instead.

"I need to do some more things... don't wait for me, just go to sleep baby."

"What's going on?" Yixing mumbles, feeling his eyelids become heavy again just by laying on Yifan's very comfortable mattress.

"Don't worry. I got everything under control. Sleep now."

With that, Yifan tucks him in and leaves the room again.

Yixing doesn't sleep though, even when every muscle in his body is telling him to do so, because Yifan's behavior worries Yixing. He doesn't know why, but his guts tell him that something big must've happened and even though he's told himself over and over again to avoid anything related to Yifan's business, he can't help but to wonder what might have happened for Yifan to work until the late a.m.s. It takes Yifan two more hours to come back into the bedroom where he flicks the reading light on to undress and put his clothes away. Yixing slowly sits up and leans against the headrest. When Yifan is standing there only wearing his boxers, he notices Yixing being awake.

"Did I wake you?"

Yixing shakes his head and huddles into Yifan's arms the second he crawls under the sheets himself. Yifan lets out a sigh, happy to finally be able to find some rest.

"What happened, Yifan?" Yixing repeats his question from before, knowing he'll hate himself for asking. "You've never been away for this long."

Yifan doesn't answer for quite some time, then he starts caressing Yixing's back.

"Lu Han found Wang."

"Oh! So that's good, right?"

"He's dead. So are his men."

"What?! But... why...?"

"We have our theories," Yifan says and rolls his eyes. "It's probably an old stupid feud with that other triad."

"Wait, hold on," Yixing says and sits up to take a look at Yifan's tired face. "There's another triad and they hate you?!"

"It sounds worse than it is - there's a small group that has been trying to obtain control over Changsha, but we are in the way. They've tried to manipulate us with rather debatable success, so I don't really think that they'd be capable of killing 13 men, but... it's the only explanation we have so far. Someone wants to ruin my business, so they decided to clean up from below."

"Do I have to worry?" Yixing asks and Yifan starts grinning, even though it comes off weaker than usual.

"Are you saying you worry about me?"

"This is not the time to joke, we are talking about murder here!" Yixing hisses, dodging the answer successfully, because he doesn't know if he worries about Yifan or about himself shall he ever get too involved.

"Sorry," Yifan says and pulls Yixing back into his arms. "Don't worry. I got this. Trust me."

Yixing makes a sound that indicates that he does trust the other, but with a certain amount of second thoughts. Yifan adds:

"I've been handling a lot of things today... like visiting the wives and kids and stuff. I just... I need some sleep."

"Then sleep." Yixing bends over to switch off the reading light next to the bed, then snuggles into Yifan and throws the blanket over them. Yifan doesn't need half a minute more, then he's fallen fast asleep, his deep and steady breathing and his slow heartbeat being witness to it. Yixing believes that he won't find too much sleep himself, because that kind of news is, in all honesty, worrying Yixing.

***

The next day, Lu Han and Tao get summoned at Yifan's place. Yixing sits at the island of the kitchen and watches the other two sitting down onto the couch, both of them looking like they had a very bad night with little to no sleep. Yifan is standing in front of them, with his arms crossed in front of his chest. It's Tao who speaks up first:

"I did the stuff you told me to do, Boss."

"Good." Yifan simply says and Tao looks over to Lu Han, clearly lost and not sure if Yifan actually meant 'good' or used it in a sarcastic way.

There's a long silence following afterwards in which no one dares to say a word. Everyone, including Yixing on the sidelines, is waiting for Yifan to make a call, who sighs deeply, then grabs the packaging of a phone that has been sitting on the table in front of the sofa. He looks at it, as if thinking hard about something, then he lifts his head and holds it towards Lu Han.

Neither Lu Han nor Tao seem to understand what the gesture means, so Yifan rolls his eyes.

"Take it, Lu Han. It's yours."

Lu Han slowly lifts his hands and takes the packaging. While he unboxes the plain and simple iPhone, he asks:

"What would I do with that?"

"Calling your people," Yifan answers.

"Umm.... what?"

"My fucking god... don't make me regret that decision already..." Yifan mumbles and massages the bridge of his nose with one finger before he adds, "There's a vacancy for one of my Red Pole jobs, Lu Han. Congrats. You're Wang's successor."

The news makes both Tao and Lu Han yell "Wait, what?!" in unison while Yixing keeps observing, sensing that this decision might be opposed by at least one person in the room.

"Yeah. I need a new guy since the guy we've been looking for is dead. So. I've put together a few people for you to come together with. When you've met them, you and them are going to check first on Sun Honglei, then on Angel and the girls."

There's still a respectable amount of disbelief readable in Lu Han's face, but then he gets up with a bright smile and he cries out:

"Thank you, Boss! I won't let you down, I promise!"

While he bows numerous times to show his gratitude, Tao crosses his arms in front of his chest and watches the scene with a tight jawline and furrowed eyebrows.

"Yeah, whatever, just don't do anything stupid. And go. Now!" Yifan says and Lu Han nods, then he takes off, the phone packaging pressed to his chest.

When he's disappeared and the clicking of the lock indicates that he's out of earshot, Tao can't help but to exclaim:

"What the fuck, Boss?! He's been around for how long?! A year?! And you assign him to be a fucking Red Pole?!"

"Jealous?" Yifan shoots back with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm just saying he hasn't been around for long! Plus, he's a fucking maniac! Have you seen what he's done to Li Nan? He shouldn't be around people and he shouldn't be in a position of power!"

"So what you're saying is that you should be doing the dirty work? You really want to be a Red Pole?"

Yixing can't quite follow, because from what he's picked up, a Red Pole is higher in hierarchy than a regular member, and he imagines that if a Red Pole is controlling a bigger area, they could easily rise to a little power and money themselves. Yifan makes it sound like being a Red Pole isn't a very desirable position and that Tao is questioning him.

"I'm just saying that Lu Han might not be the one you want to have in such a position when he's fucking nuts and gets off to fucking other people up."

"So you are jealous. You feel like I'm not appreciating you. Like I don't know what you've been doing for me for the last few years."

"I..."

Yifan silences him with a stern look and Tao sinks back into the sofa, as if he wants to avoid Yifan's judgement.

"Tao, I know exactly what you're doing for me. And that's why I didn't give you that Red Pole position. I need you close to me."

"Yeah, because you need a minion," Tao mutters, something that Yixing barely understands from his distance.

“No. Sooner or later, I might need a new Deputy.”

Tao looks up to Yifan and the sour look on his face makes way for a stunned one. His lips part slightly in disbelief when he hears that and he stammers:

“Wh... what?”

“Do you really think I’d give Lu Han any of the 438 positions?” Yifan scoffs and continues to explain, “Lu Han is the perfect Red Pole – he’s not afraid of doing the dirty jobs, in fact, he loves doing them. But he also hates rules and regulations, and he’s too short tempered to make rational decisions. You, on the other hand, know me better than any of the other dipshits in this society. You care about our values and our family. So I need you close to me. I need you in a position that actually matters for us as a whole society so we can achieve even greater things together. You’re not valuable for me as a Red Pole – fuck, Tao, you wouldn’t even be happy as a Red Pole. Lu Han though... I’m confident he’ll do a great job. He’ll thrive on that new role. You need to nourish your talent as something bigger.”

In this moment, Yixing kind of seems to understand some things about Yifan’s mind. He doesn’t come off as someone to value others, when in fact, he does. He sees people and understands which of their traits are useful to him, so he keeps them close to strategically place them on his very own chessboard that is his triad. Not only does he help himself in doing so, he also makes the people loyal to him feel special – Lu Han is probably having the best day of his life while Tao, who still has to wait longer for his reward, is kept entertained with the praise and the possibility of becoming Yifan’s right hand in the future. It all makes sense. And Yixing gets goosebumps all over his body when he realizes that.

“Boss, wow... I don’t know what to say... you... you really consider me worthy of that position...”

“Maybe it’s best if you don’t say anything and get going. We still need to find a way to keep the press away from writing about 13 dead bodies dumped in the outskirts of Changsha. I cannot have any fucking media coverage on that shit.”

“I’m on it!”

Tao seems to be even more determined to please Yifan now that he knows what’s in store for him, so he jumps up from the sofa and grabs his phone. There’s a last brotherly hug they share, then Tao leaves the apartment too, almost running for the door. When he’s gone, Yifan turns to Yixing.

“Huh. Seems like I have a free spot at my side, babe. Want to fill in for Lu Han?”

Yixing lets out a snorting noise.

“As fucking if!” He scoffs as Yifan approaches and corners him between his body and the kitchen island. “Not even if hell froze over. I’d like to stay clear from that.”

“Thinking about it... I might get to feel the wrath of my Incense Master if I assigned you just like that.”

“Triad language,” Yixing reminds Yifan. “I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

“Let’s say you want to join us as a full member, you’d need to go through a ceremony which is going to be organized and executed by my Incense Master. He’s kind of the watchdog of our traditions so they don’t die out and people don’t just go ahead and do whatever pleases them. Including me. He’s probably the only guy in the society who dares to speak against me.”

“And you haven’t cut him off for that already? I’m impressed! Did he suck your dick to get into that position?”

“You’re being cocky today!” Yifan states and works himself between Yixing’s legs who supports his elbows on the counter. When he throws his legs around Yifan’s hips, the taller one cracks a smile and adds, “Ou Hao has worked himself up from the bottom to get into that position. He’s doing an exceptional job, so he’s got more privileges than others. That’s all.”

Yixing pouts and nods to signal that he’s understood. Yifan grabs his thighs and pulls him closer, then he seems to remember something:

“Speaking of that bastard, he’s going to marry in two weeks. Do you have a suit?”

“Huh?”

“For the wedding,” Yifan says in a slow tone as if talking to a child. “I mean, I love your revealing shirts and all that, but that’d be not appropriate for a wedding.”

“You want me to come to a wedding with you?”

“Oh my god Yixing, please don’t pull that stupid card now. Of course I want you to come with me.”

Yixing is struggling with a comeback to that. That kind of sounds like they’re official boyfriends now or something of the like, which does have a weird ring to it.

“Plus, I really want to see you in a suit. And then strip that thing off you later.”

“Perverted asshole,” Yixing hisses, but feels himself growing weak as Yifan lets out a chuckle and leans over to place a kiss on his jawline.

This is going to be a very dangerous game. Oddly enough, Yixing is more than willing to play.


	4. Chapter 4

Part IV

"Is this really necessary?" Yixing asks as they get out of the car.

"Yes. It is,” Yifan answers without hesitation.

"It just feels weird," Yixing admits and follows Yifan into the boutique of the tailor for the suit that Yixing needs. "I told you that I do not want to have anything to do with your business."

"Yixing, it's just a wedding. Nobody is going to talk business," Yifan retorts and turns around, only to cup Yixing's face with his hands.

Yixing still isn't convinced. Even though it's just a wedding, it's the wedding of a triad member, and that makes the rather usual thing a little bit more delicate. Yifan seems to sense Yixing's resentments and heaves a sigh.

"Seriously. Everybody is going to take a day off the duties. We are just going to celebrate and have fun for once."

When Yixing still doesn't answer, Yifan just grabs his elbow and drags him further into the shop.

"Let's just choose a suit for you. Don't think about it too much."

He only gives in reluctantly and lets Yifan and the shop's tailor take the lead. In the next two hours, he gets his measurements taken and has to try on different outfits, which all get dismissed by Yifan who mostly sits on the couch and slurps on iced water. Yixing almost gives up the hope of finding something suitable, but when he wears a navy blue suit and steps out with an annoyed expression on his face, Yifan pauses for a second. His eyes grow wide and he forgets his phone in his hands that he has just been texting on.

"That's it!" He then says after examining Yixing from head to toe.

"Are you sure? Or are you going to send me in there to try a few dozen other suits?" Yixing grunts and makes Yifan roll his eyes.

When he gets up, he's smiling though and says:

"I'm sure."

"Pheew, I thought this might never end," Yixing responds and turns around to take a look in the mirror. 

He needs to admit though, a well fitted suit does wonders to the whole appearance of a person. He cannot remember if he has ever looked this good before. Yifan puts his hands on Yixing's shoulders and examines the other’s back with a smirk, as if he's about to drop a naughty comment, but instead he says:

"We might need to adjust the shoulders a little."

Yifan turns around to call out for the tailor, but instead of the guy who has been swirling around them, he finds three other people standing a few feet away from them. Yixing sees the frozen expression on Yifan's face in the reflection of the mirror and turns his head to look who's arrived.

Yixing has never seen them before, and judging from Yifan's stone hard facial expression, the other's not too happy to be seeing them. There are two guys in dress shirts flanking a woman somewhere in her early fifties - she looks way younger though. The short bob, a perfect foundation covering up the wrinkles around her eyes and mouth, and bright red lipstick take at least ten years off her face. She looks at Yifan with her hands buried in the pockets of her suit pants and shows a cold smile.

"Hello, Wu Yifan," she greets him.

Yifan grunts and turns to Yixing.

"Yixing, go get changed."

"Ummm...?"

"Please, don't ask, just do it."

Yixing retreats but instead of changing, he keeps his ear pressed against the door of the dressing room. His guts tell him to not do this, but his curiosity wins over his rational mind.

"Mrs. Li, what do you want here?" He hears Yifan ask.

"Oh, I was just in the area. Saw you here. Thought I'd drop by and say hi."

"U-huh."

"I heard about that one Red Pole of yours. My condolences."

"Oh sweet Jesus, cut the bullshit. We all know that it was probably you who gave out the order."

"Do you really think that _I_ need to get 13 men killed to get my ways?"

She lets out a scoff that sounds so fake it makes Barbie's voice sound real.

"Obviously. I heard your business isn't doing so well. It's just way too convenient for you, right? Wang disappearing right when one of the men you've shipped over from America opens a bar in _my_ operating area."

Li cackles and the sound sends shivers down Yixing's spine as he connects the dots to a whole picture.

"I have to admit, it really helps. But we are not involved in this."

"Yeah, why am I not believing you?"

The question is one of the rhetorical kinds and Yixing hears the clattering of her high heels on the wooden floor as she approaches Yifan.

"I kind of miss your father, Wu Yifan," she says in a very low voice and Yixing has troubles understanding her. "You know... he... was a man with guts. Made people shiver in fear when he entered a room. I still get goosebumps when I think of him."

"Don't you fucking dare talking about my father!"

Yixing scoots over and watches them from the small gap in the dressing room door. As he sees both of them, Mrs. Li turns her head into his direction, as if sensing that Yixing is watching them, cracks a smile and says:

"I also heard you're going to attend a wedding. Have fun. And keep your people close, you never know if that person who took Wang down will strike again."

"You're not scaring me, Li."

She turns around again to face Yifan. She shows a crooked smile, then lifts her hand which shows perfectly manicured fingernails and a whole lot of expensive jewelry. As she pats Yifan’s cheek, she says:

"Likewise, darling. Have a nice day with your little boyfriend."

Then she turns around with a nod to her two companions and disappears. Yifan keeps staring into her direction even after she's gone and Yixing starts hurrying to change into his own clothes before Yifan awakes from his trance. When he steps out of the changing room, he blurts out:

"Was that the leader from that other triad that's on some sick feud with you?!"

"Shh, Yixing."

"Yifan she threatened you!"

"Technically, she threatened _you_."

"Oh wow and that's supposed to help here? Is that what you classify as 'calming advice'?!" Yixing scoffs and ruffles his hair, feeling his guts clench as he thinks about that dubious woman who looked like she has killed Wang and his entourage herself without even blinking.

"Yixing," Yifan says and takes Yixing’s hands in his own. "I got this. She's not going to hurt you. Nobody's going to hurt you as long as you're under my protection, I promise."

Yixing sighs and really does want to believe and trust Yifan to the fullest, but something tells him that it will not be that easy. Yifan leans over and places a kiss on Yixing’s cheek, thus forcing him to look up.

"I won't let anyone who can harm you come near you. You're my number one priority."

"Wow. Is that your mafia way of saying that you like me?"

"Way to kill the mood, you little bitch!"

Yixing can't help but to chuckle and even Yifan can't hide a very faint smile from creeping onto his face.

"Sorry!" Yixing snorts and Yifan grabs the suit that Yixing still has over his left arm.

"Let's go buy that suit and get home."

"Can we finally get food then?" Yixing asks while Yifan is already taking off for the counter where the owner of the shop has been hiding behind.

"Sure, what do you want?" Yifan asks back and turns around.

Yixing bites his bottom lip before he says:

"I just... I've been... really craving some Hongshaorou?"

Asking Yifan to get him some meat is like playing Russian Roulette - sometimes he'd be totally fine with it, sometimes he'd act like Yixing had just confessed to have assisted Hitler in the Holocaust personally. There is no in between with that guy. Today is one of those latter days as Yifan gasps and exclaims:

"Yixing! All those saturated fats clogging up your arteries...! Do you really want to do this to your body?!"

"Okay, okay, okay! Chill! No Hongshaorou! Then just... do that Papaya Salad or whatever that was from last week..." Yixing cuts him off and walks past him to the counter. "No need to lecture me once again about this!"

"I just care about you, baby!" Yifan whines as the owner charges the suit and Yifan is pulling out his credit card to pay for it.

"Let's just leave it at that please, I can't have another conversation going that way."

Yifan takes the bag with the suit and the credit card while Yixing leaves the boutique, slightly annoyed. He's the first to reach the car and when he turns around he sees Yifan typing on his phone again, going in such an amazing speed even a sloth would've fallen asleep watching him.

"Seriously, Yifan, who are you texting with all the time?"

"Do you think I have a side whore?"

"Okay, wow, that implies that I'm the main whore and that's degrading!"

Yifan snorts and shows his phone where he's got a takeaway app opened. A message on the screen is thanking him for his recent purchase. Yixing frowns, but doesn't ask what's going on since Yifan is telling him right away:

"I ordered some Hongshaorou for you, so stop the bitching and get into the car so we're in time for some underpaid student to deliver that."

Yixing swallows another cocky comment and slips onto the passenger's seat when Yifan unlocks the car. When Yifan sits behind the steering wheel, he’s got his finger on the engine button, but before he presses it to activate the motor, he takes a deep breath and says:

"And you're not a whore."

With that, he gets the vehicle moving onto the main road and Yixing is dying to know what he's supposed to be for Yifan, but if he asked, the very scary term 'boyfriend' might slip from Yifan's lips and such a commitment is not up Yixing's overall plan for this situation. He's never intended to catch feelings for the other - he solely tried to take advantage of the situation, otherwise he had been out on the streets, but his lack of action in finding a new home should Sun Honglei ever come up with the money doesn't really speak in his favor. He’d like to say that he’s used to all the advantages that living with Yifan brings, but if he’s being completely honest, he’s also gotten used to Yifan to the point that he might even like him. Yixing’s gotten used to him cooking dinner and later praising Yifan for whatever he’s come up with. He’s gotten used to their morning routine, their slow breakfasts on Sundays, the evenings on the couch and the nights in between the sheets – and he’s not sure if he wants to give any of that up.

"So what am I then?"

 _Fuck. There it is. Jesus. Zhang Yixing. When did you become this stupid piece of shit?!_ He scolds himself mentally.

It's good Yifan has to keep his eyes on the road so he's not trying to make eye contact. Slowly, but hesitantly, he says:

"That is solely up to you. You're... I mean... you decide."

“What if I told you that I’m not sure?”

Yifan needs to stop at a red light and turns his head towards Yixing. A shadow flickering across his face tells Yixing that Yifan might’ve hoped for a different statement, but then he says:

“Then I’ll wait for you to tell me when you are.”

Sometimes, in moments like these, Yixing wants to punch the other – why is Yifan making it so hard for Yixing to dislike him?! Why is he so gentle and caring, why doesn’t he try to push him, why is he just _so fucking soft_ around him?! Why can’t he just pull his triad-boss-act on him to scare him away so once Honglei pays his debt, he can pack his shit and leave?!

Yixing suppresses a sigh, then he leans over and kisses Yifan, who immediately jumps in and pulls Yixing closer at the nape of his neck. It needs the driver behind them honking for them to realize that the lights have turned green and they part again.

While Yifan hurries to get moving with a slight blush on his cheeks, Yixing says:

“I’ll let you know once I am.”

Yifan nods quickly while he overtakes another car, rushing to get home.

***

A few days later, Yixing finds himself attending the wedding of the Yifan’s Incense Master who is, just like Yifan, pretty young, tall, and handsome. His wife is just as beautiful and Yixing immediately thinks that they're one of those matches made in heaven. Their offspring will win the genetic lottery, for sure. During the ceremony, Yixing tries to keep himself in the background, but when all of that is over and they’re at the venue for the wedding banquet, Yifan grabs him by the elbow and tells him to come with him.

"We need to congratulate the newlyweds, don't we?" He asks and Yixing grunts.

"They don't even know me!" Yixing whines as they approach the two who are talking to Lu Han.

"Oh, do we?" Ou Hao asks as Yixing gets dragged over. "Yifan talks a lot about you."

"Embarrassing," Yixing hisses and makes the bride chuckle with his comment.

"Yeah, Ou Hao, that's kind of disrespectful, throwing me under the bus like that!" Yifan cries out and Ou Hao snorts.

"Sorry boss. I had to say it."

"You're forgiven. But only because it's your wedding day."

"Aren't you generous!" Ou Hao scoffs with a wink and Yifan just shakes his head before he pulls him into a hug.

"Congratulations," he says, instead of scolding his sworn brother once more and Ou Hao returns the hug. Yixing turns to the bride instead and says:

"Yeah. Umm. Congratulations. That's awkward."

She shows a bright smile, then she takes Yixing's hand and says:

"No need to feel like that. You're part of the family now. We all take care of each other."

"And that is kind of the scary part for me?"

"You'll get used to it," she answers and winks at him, probably indicating that she had been in a similar situation. 

"Oh shit..." Yifan says after he's let go of Ou Hao and proceeds to search the pockets of his suit. "I think I forgot the envelope in my car."

"God, Yifan, I reminded you to take it with you just before we got out!" Yixing slips and Yifan clicks his tongue to silence him.

"I'll go get it, wait for me here."

When he disappears to the parking lot to get the envelope with the money for the couple, Lu Han allows himself a judgement:

"You know, you and Boss are kind of like married couple already."

"Worse than we are," Ou Hao adds and Yixing's answer is a long and frustrated grunt.

"Stop teasing him! I know how it feels like to be with someone who's a criminal. It takes time to adjust to the thought," the bride comes to Yixing's supposedly rescue but Yixing feels like she's doing even more harm.

"Ummm... we're not... together... like that..." He says and Lu Han throws in:

"Yeah, he's more like Boss' sex slave."

"I'm also not his slave!" Yixing lashes out, but isn't able to clarify what they actually are.

Before the three others can go on and force him to give out an answer, the entrance door opens and a few people pour in. Leading the formation is Mrs. Li in a tight black pencil skirt and a red blouse, looking like one of those vamp women in movies ready to fuck some shit up. The whole room goes silent within an instant and Ou Hao says:

"You're not invited."

"I just came by to give out my blessings!" Mrs. Li says with that fake voice again, acting as if she's offended by Ou Hao's cold demeanor.

"Great. Thank you. We don't need your blessings. Leave the venue. This is supposed to be a merry gathering."

Ou Hao is either the same type of person that Yifan is or he has copied a lot of his icy behavior from him, but within the blink of an eye, he's changed from a happy groom to the triad member he probably acts like most of the time. His newly wed wife throws a confused look into the direction of Mrs. Li and her husband. Yixing notices in the corner of his eyes how Lu Han is slowly reaching for his hips where he's got his gun stowed all the time. Seeing that, Yixing senses bad things bound to happen and he feels his heart start pumping adrenaline through his veins, so hard he literally feels it smashing against his ribcage. Li heaves a sigh, then her eyes catch Yixing.

"How's Yifan?" She asks and Lu Han steps in:

"Don't talk to him."

Mrs. Li turns to the new Red Pole and curls her lips. She takes another long look around the wedding guests and says:

"I get it. I'm not a welcomed guest. Congratulations anyways. Have a blessed marriage. No matter how long it will last."

With a last cold smile, she turns around to take her leave, but the people that have come with her do not follow her. When she isn't even halfway to the door, a thing happens in such an incredible speed, Yixing can't even react when someone yells "They've brought GUNS!" and all hell breaks loose around him.

The bride, other wives, and kids start screaming as the sound of bullets flying through the air fill the room. Lu Han grabs Yixing by the elbow, lifting his own gun and firing it into the direction of the intruders. He flips a table over, knocks the presents placed on it down and pulls Yixing behind it, so they have a little protection.

"These bastards!" He cries out and reloads his gun.

A bullet flies closely over their heads and gets stuck in the wall, making Yixing squeal.

"What is going on?!"

"Do I look like I know?!" Lu Han retorts and gets up to fire a few shots before he ducks again. "Fuck man, this Li bitch! She knew most of us would be gathered here today!"

"Ugh..."

Only now, Yixing starts to feel the stinging pain in his upper right arm and he looks down. His suit has been ripped open by a bullet that hasn't only grazed the cloth but also cut right through his flesh. 

"Fuuuuck, no!"

"You've been hit?!" Lu Han asks and comes back down as Yixing takes off the jacket to check on the wound. "You'll be fine, it's just a graze shot! Yifan can fix this on his own, he’s patched me up before and I’ve been in worse condition!"

"Umm... Lu Han... I'm not very good with blood..."

Yixing starts to feel dizzy as his white shirt gets drowned in dark red color and his warm blood spills all over the cloth.

"Oh my god, don't pussy out on me now, okay! I need you up on your feet so we can make a run for it!"

"I... no... Lu Han... I'm hemophiliac...!"

Lu Han, who was busy to rip off parts of the table cloth to do some basic first aid for Yixing's wound, stops his doing to give Yixing a disbelieving look.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!"

"No. My blood doesn't clot. It takes hours until a papercut stops bleeding... I don't know... that's kind of bad here...?"

"God, why is this my fucking life!!" Lu Han roars and proceeds to put a pressure bandage on him while the bullets keep flying around their ears. "You better not fucking bleed out on me! I'll shoot your balls off if you do, okay?!"

"I'm trying!" Yixing shoots back and in that moment Tao appears next to them.

"Fuck guys, this is bad! They're too many! Ou Hao's down!"

"What?!"

"Where's Yifan?" Yixing asks.

"You shut the hell up and keep putting pressure on your wound, for fuck's sake!" Lu Han bitches and gets up to unload another magazine on the enemies when there's a short break in between reloads on their behalf.

"Did you get shot?" Tao asks.

"Yes, and he's a hemophiliac, so chances are he's going to bleed out!"

"Fuuuuuck!"

"Can we stop saying that I'm going to die, please?! This is stressing enough as it is!" Yixing screams as the shooting continues.

"Yixing, we need to get you out of here. Boss will kill us if anything happens to you!" Tao says.

"For your information: Something happened to him already, so we might as well get shot!" Lu Han says and lets out a victory scream as he hits one of the shooters in the thigh. "Yes! Take that you MOTHERFUCKER!"

"Why is this happening to me?!" Yixing asks and isn't quite sure if he really feels like his life is leaving his body or if Lu Han's talk about him bleeding to death within ten seconds only makes him think he's dying.

"Yixing, it's going to be fine, we'll get you out of here. Lu Han! For fuck's sake! Give us some fire protection! We're trying to go through the back door to the parking lot!"

"Do you have some ammunition? I'm almost done!"

Tao unhooks his weapon and hands it over to Lu Han. Along with it, he hands over some more magazines and Yixing is astonished how someone could actually think about bringing a gun to a fucking wedding. This triad world isn't made for him, clearly.

"Okay! Back door! Yixing, do you see it? That's where you need to go as fast as possible, okay?"

"Yeah..." Yixing says, still pressing down on his arm, but feeling nausea creeping up in his stomach.

"I'll be right behind you. Nothing's going to happen!"

What happens next is a series of events in slow motion - Tao pulls him up and pushes him to the exit, he feels bullets missing his head only by a few inches before he gets through the door and keeps getting pushed forward as Tao gets his phone out of his pocket to call 911. Yixing can only make out the words "mass shooting" and "send help as soon as possible, kids and women are involved" as he keeps walking through the corridors, even though he has no idea where to go. Without the noise of the shooting, his ears start beeping. His view gets blurry and he feels gushes of pain rushing from his bicep into his fingertips. When he cuts around a corner, he runs into Yifan which makes him release a relieved sigh - Yifan can take care of him. Yifan can get him out of here.

"What is going ON?!" Yifan yells and pulls Yixing into his arms, probably not realising that Yixing is bleeding.

"Mrs. Li and her shitheads of minions opened fire on us!" Lu Han explains. "Don't go back there, it's fucking crazy."

"I've called an ambulance, they're on their way - we need to get out of here and get Yixing to the hospital, he's been shot," Tao explains, a tad calmer than Lu Han, but his eyes give away how fucking terrified he is himself.

"What?!" 

"We've got no time, okay, or your little boyfriend will definitely bleed to death!"

"What the fuck!"

Neither Tao nor Lu Han explain and keep pushing Yifan back out onto the parking lot where he's just came from, in panic the shooters might follow them. When they break through the exit door to the parking lot, Yixing feels his legs finally giving in and he stumbles forward, only held up by Yifan who's got a tight hold of him. The humidity isn't helping - if not, it makes Yixing's condition only worse.

"I think I'm gonna vomit..." He announces, because he starts to feel really, really sick, but that sickness instantly turns into dizziness and black dots start blocking his sight.

"Get the fucking CAR!" Yifan cries out and Lu Han starts running for the vehicle as if his life depends on it to get behind the steering wheel and start the engine. "Yixing, stay with me..."

***

When Yixing comes back to his senses, he wakes up in a hospital bed, an IV slowly dripping nutrition back into his body. It takes him a few moments to fully be aware of his surroundings, and is relieved when he's obviously not dead.

"God, finally, you're awake!"

Tao's voice makes him jump. 

"I... yeah..."

"God, that was a shitty day," Tao says, leans back in his chair and puts his feet on the end of Yixing's bed.

"What exactly happened?" Yixing asks and feels his arm hurting again, but it's way better than before.

"You fainted and we brought you to the hospital, that's what happened," Tao says dryly and lets his neck crack. "And I'm on shift to take care of you."

"Take... care...?"

"Boss' orders. He wanted to stay but Lu Han and I convinced him to get a little bit of sleep and check on the other people from the wedding. I think Ou Hao died."

Yixing feels how he's getting sick again at the statement and tries to sit up.

"Don't sweat it, Yixing. Relax. It's three in the morning."

"... how are you not being sent away?"

"Yixing. Your boyfriend practically owns the whole city. We can do whatever the fuck we want."

"He's not my boyfriend..." Yixing says weakly but is too drained to be putting up an actual fight with Tao who looks just as exhausted.

"His blood is pumping through your veins right now, I'd say he can't get any deeper than any rough sex could."

"Wait, what?!"

Tao chuckles and puts his hands behind his head.

"You should've seen it. Lu Han told him in the car that you're a hemophiliac and he completely lost his shit. I think Lu Han got three speeding tickets because Yifan kept yelling at him to hurry the fuck up. Then he stormed the emergency room with you in his arms and almost knocked a guy with a broken leg over. If the situation hadn't been so severe I would've laughed my ass off," The man giggles for a second, then he looks back at Yixing to continue his little story. "So they carried you off and told us to stay put."

"So... since I’m not in ICU... I guess it wasn't that grave," Yixing concludes but Tao clicks his tongue to disagree.

"The bullet didn't only get your muscle but also an artery or something. If we hadn't brought you in you would've been in real trouble, dude. Anyone would've been. But you especially."

"Amazing..." 

Yixing's head starts to hurt but he decides to ignore the dull pounding in his skull.

"You needed surgery and then they needed to give you a blood transfusion. Boss jumped right at the chance, since he's blood type O and can give to anyone. It was super dramatic. Like a cheesy Korean Drama."

"Ugh... I'm not even going to question why they apparently hadn’t had any blood bags with my blood type around."

Tao grins, then says:

"Well, he's been here until an hour ago, then we sent him off to check on the other brothers and their families and to get some sleep. Lu Han's left too, but he'll be back in two hours to take over. Boss won't let you alone, he kind of fears that Li might come back."

"She basically killed the whole triad, what would she want with me?" Yixing asks with an eye roll.

"Yixing, he does that because he cares about you. Let him. Don't be a bitch all the time."

"I'm not...!"

"Oh, you are. But I guess that's his kink, I'm not the one to judge," Tao retorts and looks out of the window.

When none of them says anything for quite a while, he speaks up again:

"Yixing. Go to sleep. You need it."

"I still hear the gun shots," Yixing says, indicating that even if he wanted, he couldn't. 

"Yeah, I do too," Tao says. "But I'd rather hear gun shots than the cries of the wives and kids."

"Do you think any of them are...?" 

"We don't know anything yet. News of a mass shooting is going around already. The Deputy is trying to cover up as much as possible. It's... crazy."

"My fucking god... children..."

It feels like someone is twisting and turning his guts when he only thinks about all the kids that had been running around between the tables.

"You know, that is the worst thing you could ever do in our society," Tao says. "Shootings? Okay. You set a date and an address and you just go. But opening fire on a wedding? That's so fucking low. And I'm pretty sure Mrs. Li didn't even want to finish us. She just wanted to kick off that old fucking feud she had with Boss' dad. She thinks just because he's young, she can take advantage and take over the city. But she doesn't know him like I do."

Tao looks over to Yixing and the moon shining into the room illuminates only one half of his face, and the bewildered look in his eyes sends shivers down Yixing's spine.

"If possible, Boss will end that bitch with his own hands."

***

After a quiet night with only the night nurse checking in on Yixing every once in a while and Lu Han keeping watch starting from the very early morning hours, Yifan returns to the hospital. The way he looks, he probably hasn't caught any sleep. He also doesn't wear stylish business attire, he's just managed to throw on some sweatpants and a simple black shirt, which makes Yixing wonder if he has these sort of clothes only for those sort of situations - those where everything around him gets completely out of control. Yifan doesn't even greet Lu Han who's about to open a pack of yoghurt for Yixing who cannot move his arm properly, and just crashes his mouth onto Yixing's.

"I'm so so sorry," he mumbles against Yixing's lips and Lu Han clears his throat to catch his attention.

"Umm... I'll leave then... before you continue your little make out session here... that'd be awkward..."

Yifan looks up to Lu Han and reaches out for the pack of yoghurt that the other hands over.

"Thank you, Lu Han," Yifan says.

"No problem, Boss," Lu Han responds and gets up for the door. Right before he disappears through it, he turns around again. "Hey, Yixing. Sorry how I talked to you yesterday, but that was really fucking stressful. I hope you get well soon." 

Yixing is so surprised to be hearing nice words coming out of Lu Han's usually filthy mouth, he raises an eyebrow and stammers:

"Umm... not your fault... and... thanks?"

Lu Han nods, waves a last goodbye and then leaves the scene. When the door is shut, Yifan sighs and grabs the plastic spoon to whisk the yoghurt in the cup while sitting down on the chair that has been occupied by Tao and Lu Han before. He keeps whisking and staring at it as if he's waiting for an answer to appear, so Yixing speaks up:

"Yifan...?"

Yifan snaps back into reality. When he realizes he's zoned out, he clears his throat and says:

"Sorry."

He lifts the cup to read the ingredients and scoffs.

"Yeah. That is exactly what sick people need. Eight grams of sugar per serving."

"It's just yoghurt. Don't make a fuss out of it."

Yifan groans and smashes the yoghurt back onto the tray to the rest of Yixing's breakfast which makes the younger flinch.

"Okay, sorry, I didn't mean to-" He launches an explanation, but Yifan cuts him off right away:

"You were fucking unresponsive for over thirty minutes!"

"Sorry...?" 

Yixing is at loss for words and feels like no matter what he’s going to say it won’t make Yifan any less angry. The older one supports his head with his hands on Yixing's bed and takes a few breaths before he looks up again.

"I wasn't aware of what was going on. I didn't hear anything on the parking lot. I just... I received a call from a friend and I kept chatting with him for quite some time, even though I had the envelope already because I was afraid of losing signal inside the venue. Can you imagine?! I was stressing more about losing a _fucking signal_ when right in that moment, I could've..." He pauses and presses his lips together, as if the next words shouldn't ever be said out loud. "... I could've lost you."

"Yifan..."

"And... not only that... Ou Hao died. Someone unloaded their whole fucking magazine into his back because he shielded his wife. A kid is in ICU. A fucking kid. I can't protect my own people from an old crazy bitch!"

"Wow, hey...!" Yixing starts when Yifan begins to blink rapidly and a few beats later, some tears start rolling down his cheek.

"This would've never happened if my father was still alive, I just don't know what to do!"

Yixing doesn't know the answer either, so he just scoots to the side as much as his arm allows him to and he says while reaching out for Yifan:

"Come here."

Yifan hesitates for a second, then he crawls onto the mattress and lies down next to Yixing who throws his good arm around him to give him a source of comfort. Yifan presses his face into the curve of Yixing's neck and the younger one feels tears coating his skin.

"Take a deep breath, it's okay..."

"How is this okay?" Yifan presses out between some sobs. "I promised to protect you… I promised to protect all of them..."

"Ssshhh..."

Yixing is awfully helpless while he keeps caressing Yifan's back and lets him cry - it's the only thing that comes to his mind that may help. Let him cry and be weak for once, let him get all of it out of his system, so he can start over and find a solution. Sometimes crying is the only thing to make a situation better. Yixing doesn’t say anything and patiently waits for Yifan to get his sobbing under control. When he finally calms down enough, Yifan sits back up again, wiping away the traces the tears left on his face.

"I still feel save around you," Yixing says and causes Yifan to lift his head and look at him.

"How so?"

The younger smiles, then his hand wanders to Yifan's neck where he starts running his fingers over the skin.

"When Tao, Lu Han, and me escaped and I ran into your arms... I knew you'd keep me safe."

Yifan cracks a smile, then he seals their lips with a very gentle kiss that makes Yixing's stomach flutter. He didn't even lie when he said that - he thinks that somehow ending up unconscious wasn't only the result of losing blood and stress and pain (even though, up to 99% it probably was), it was also because he knew that Yifan would take care of him and he could hand himself over to the man and be sure that everything was going to be fine.

 _What a fucking weird thought you dumbass_ , Yixing scolds himself when Yifan breaks away from their kiss and sits back up to slide off the bed. He sighs, and while sitting down into the chair, he says:

"I need to tell you something."

"Huh."

"Sun Honglei has paid his debts."

"Oh."

That's everything he can manage to say. Oh. It's like his brain goes blank for a second before he can add a:

"When?"

"Two days ago. Lu Han's received the money. I just... I didn't want to tell you because... well... I wanted you to at least come with me to the wedding."

Yixing understands - Yifan has just found another reason to think that it's his fault he got shot. If he hadn't been acting so selfish and hadn't withheld the info about Sun Honglei paying the bills, Yixing might've been gone already and hadn't gotten involved.

"Do you really think I would've left that fast?"

Yifan looks back to him with a raised eyebrow.

"You wouldn't have taken the chance to escape the second I had told you?"

"Escape where to, Yifan?" Yixing asks, "I have no apartment anyways! I have no money to go to a hostel! And your bed is way too comfortable to give that up within the blink of an eye!"

For a few seconds, Yifan doesn’t answer, but when the words get through to him, the left corner of his mouth twitches into something that Yixing could carefully label as a smile.

“So what. It’s just my bed that keeps you here?”

“And your pancakes.”

Yifan snorts at the teasing and Yixing turns the palm of his left hand up to offer it to the other. When Yifan slips his hand over it, Yixing interlaces their fingers, still amazed how their hands could possibly fit together.

“So it’s just food and my sheets? I’m hurt, baby,” Yifan whines and pouts, starting to caress the back of Yixing’s hand with his thumb while he supports his head with his other arm placed on the mattress.

“Well...” Yixing starts, and puffs his cheeks. “I definitely need someone to make me those pancakes, so you can stay too.”

With that comment, Yixing tickles a laugh out of Yifan who then bends over and kisses his cheek.

“You could’ve just admitted that you like me, you know.”

“Never!”

Yifan wants to protest, but when Yixing turns his head and meets his lips, Yifan seems to forget about his outcry and softens up again. 

“I’m just glad you’re okay...ish,” he then says when their lips part again.

Yixing tilts his head and tries to catch a glimpse at the bandage around his shoulder. He couldn’t see how the wound looks like when the doctor had come in in the morning and changed the bandage, but the doctor and the nurse hadn’t looked too worried about it.

“I’ll live, Yifan. It probably wasn’t that bad.”

“It was the worst for me,” Yifan responds like a stubborn child.

Yixing heaves a sigh and kisses the back of Yifan’s hand that’s still holding on to him.

“I’ll be fine.”

Yifan nods reluctantly, because he seems to sense that Yixing doesn’t want to hear any more of Yifan’s whining. He darts his gaze away from the other and his eyes fall on the breakfast that has yoghurt all over it, thanks to his little temper tantrum before.

“I need to get you breakfast, this bullshit is unacceptable,” he announces and gets up, “What do you want?”

“I’m not that hungry anyways.”

A stern look on Yifan’s behalf lets Yixing squeal and he quickly says:

“Ummm, maybe some fruit and a yoghurt?”

“On it,” Yifan says and kisses Yixing’s forehead before he turns for the door, promising to be back soon.


	5. Chapter 5

Part V

Yixing is glad his arm is healing up, slowly but steadily, and he'll probably be free from his bandages by the time the new semester starts. This is crucial to him, because he really can’t think of a plausible explanation how to tell his friends how he’s obtained a shot wound. His healing process is mostly something he has to thank Yifan for who is taking even greater care of him now – the way he twirls around Yixing all the time, checks up on the wound almost four times a day and meticulously keeps an eye on Yixing’s medicine is almost too much for the other. Yixing lets him though, because he figures that this is just Yifan’s way of apologizing for what happened.

It's about a week after Yixing got released from the hospital when a whole bunch of people are walking through the door of Yifan's place and occupy the living room. Besides Tao and Lu Han, it's also Ou Hao's widowed wife and a few other men that Yixing has seen at the wedding. Yixing retreats behind the kitchen counter, to watch from afar, just like he's done it before already. The mood is so glum, the sun shining in through the big windows feels like it’s trying to mock the people inside. Lihua blinks heavily through red and swollen eyes, while Tao keeps offering her tissues and back pats. Yifan stands in front of the good eight people, all of them dressed in black and looking to their leader in grim anticipation. Yixing senses that Yifan has feared this moment. He takes a long look at each and every one of them, until he ends up at Lihua who is having a hard time facing the sworn brothers of her deceased husband. She's buried him barely a week ago and will probably need a good amount of time to get over the fact she's lost him on the one day that was supposed to be her happiest.

"I'm so sorry, Lihua," Yifan finally says, causing her to choke on another wave of tears that she tries to suppress. "I wish I could bring him back."

She nods, then buries her face in the next tissue that Tao hands her over. Her grief gets through to Yixing and for a split second he imagines what it must feel like to lose the one you love the most. He looks at Yifan and to imagine what it would be like if he had thrown himself in front of him. The thought sends a cold shiver down his spine.

Yifan looks to the man standing behind the sofa right behind Lihua.

"I'm also sorry about your kid, brother Bai. How is she?"

"She's going to get released from ICU tomorrow," he informs with a worried expression on his face. "She's doing better. Will take a while for her to recover fully though."

The guy next to him pats his shoulders and Yifan nods.

"At least there's one good news..."

"What's good about _any_ of this?!" Lihua hisses and looks up, her mascara running down according to the way her tears are rolling over her cheekbones.

"We could've had a higher body count," Yifan answers.

"We shouldn't have a body count to begin with!" She yells and kicks against the living room table in front of her.

The whole room stops breathing, fearing that Yifan might lose his temper with her behavior. But he doesn't say anything, which gives Lihua the courage to speak up and vent her anger:

"I wasn't supposed to _bury my husband_! He wasn't supposed to die on his wedding day! I should be in Hawaii right now on my honeymoon with him, but instead, I had to burn and bury him!" She wipes over her teary face with her hand, then she points towards Bai behind her. "He shouldn't be visiting his daughter in ICU because she got a bullet stuck in her body! That kid was supposed to have a fun day and then that whore walked in and opened fire on us!"

Her gaze crosses Yixing's, and she spits out:

"And what about Yixing, huh?! His only mistake was to get involved with you, he's like the least person who's got anything to do with our society and he got dragged into this stupid feud! _We need our revenge, Yifan!_ Ou Hao hasn't died protecting me for this to be swept under the rug and be forgotten!"

Nobody dares to say a word after her outburst, but most of the other men nod to show their support. Yifan looks over to Yixing who thinks about saying something, but before anything comes to his mind, the other man turns his back to the others.

"This fucking feud has been going on for way too long now," he finally says and rubs his eyes in annoyance. "It started in the nineties when my father snatched that deal away from Li... which brought my father his reputation and a good name to our society, and Li was forced to retreat until she reappeared ten years ago... _fucking whore_. Not even the devil wants her, which is probably why she hasn't choked on her own fucking lies and intrigues yet."

He puts his hands onto his hips and takes a look down on Changsha - somewhere in those streets, Mrs. Li is going on with whatever next step on her plan's agenda to crush Yifan and his triad. Lihua has stopped crying as her grief has stepped back in favor of pure anger filling her delicate body. She looks like she's ready to kill Li with her own two hands.

"This will end though. Now," Yifan says and turns around - his eyes have turned dark again. He's back in full triad demeanor. "Li wants a fucking vendetta in the streets of Changsha? She can have it! We'll end her - and the rest of her fucking minions!"

The people sat on the sofa lean over and knock their fists on the table, while the people standing clap their hands in approval. Yixing leans back against the oven and crosses his arms in front of his chest, wincing when his arm starts hurting at the movement. The pain reminds him that the whole thing happening around him is real. He's not trapped in a weird fever dream. This is reality. He used to think that he's a person with high moral standards. That he could never find a reason weighing in so heavily to legitimate vigilante justice. Yet, he is standing in the kitchen, his wound pulsing and stinging, knowing very well that Yifan is talking about murdering someone and what he feels is not fear or disgust – it’s satisfaction. He sees Lihua and Bai, the two persons who give all the other people that got injured and traumatized a face, and he just knows that this is the only way.

When the small applause dies down, Yifan has his shoulders pulled back in an aggressive and domineering way, making him appear taller than he already is.

"Are you with me, brothers?"

"Yes!"

It's only a handful of them, but the word rolls through the room like a crashing wave caused by at least 50. Their boss nods his head and says:

"Let's give them what they deserve and end this once and for all!"

"Your father would be proud, Boss," one of the older men says and Yixing remembers that he's gotten introduced to Yixing as Yifan's deputy. "He's never gotten rid of her. But you can do it. You can finish what he couldn't."

"Thank you, Liao."

It seems like those were the words Yifan needed to hear to be completely determined, so he proceeds:

"Liao, I need you to get back to all of my Red Poles and take the words out on the street. I need every single one of my men on alert. Make them gear up."

"Consider it done," Liao says.

"Tao," Yifan then says and everyone turns their head to the man. "I need you to take on the role as my new Incense Master. We can't be vulnerable. I need you to fill in Ou Hao's spot."

Yixing looks to Lu Han who is seated next to Tao and expects him shooting some jealous looks, but the man only nods in high approval, as if this is the only acceptable solution to the problem. Yifan was right - Lu Han is absolutely content with his role as a Red Pole. He's probably never had the ambition to get one of the 438 spots.

Tao looks to Lihua as if he wants to ask her for her approval. She grabs his hand and squeezes it, then he says:

"Okay, Boss."

"Any objections?" Yifan asks the round but when even Liao shakes his head, he walks over to the sofa and sits down on the table, right in front of Lihua who looks a little more pacified than she has a few moments ago.

He opens his palms and Lihua is slowly putting hers on them. When he wraps his fingers around her hands, they disappear completely. She's delicate like a doll compared to him. Still, there's something about her that makes Yixing think that out of all the people in the room right now, she holds the most power.

"I remember when Ou Hao told me he's met you," Yifan starts and she presses her lips together, as if those words trigger some painful memories. "He said he wanted to quit. He wasn't sure if you'd still want him when he told you that he's a triad member. I wouldn't let him... he's taken the oaths and they're irreversible."

Lihua nods, showing that she completely understands what Yifan is trying to say. She even mouths an _'I know'_ before she lowers her gaze.

"But just as Ou Hao, we've taken the oaths too."

"If any of my sworn brothers are killed, or arrested, or have departed to some other place, I will assist their wives and children who may be in need. If I pretend to have no knowledge of their difficulties I will be killed by five thunderbolts," Tao recites and a few others mutter the words along.

Yixing has no clue about the oaths. That five thunderbolt-thing sounds a little exaggerated to him, and he figures the oaths are a relict of the old days in the 18th century. Still, he realizes what Yifan meant when he said that he's part of a much bigger picture than just the simple and plain business he's running. He’s seen the triad as mere organized crime, but the scene unfolding in front of him shows that there’s more to it. It’s like a family that one joins, and the ties are strong, probably even stronger than those one has by blood.

"We won't turn our backs on you, Lihua. We'll help you."

Her response is a nod and a very faint grateful smile before Yifan squeezes her hands once more, then he says:

"Let's get moving, boys."

The gathering sets off immediately and with some last few orders for the one and the other, Yifan dismisses them. Tao offers Lihua to bring her home which she accepts and they get going, Tao patting her back and she just lets him guide her, too beat by all the emotions she just went through. Lu Han can’t wait to break the news to his people and while he shakes Yifan’s hand for a goodbye, he’s got his phone on his ear already. Liao is the last to leave after talking out a rough plan with Yifan about how to proceed. When he finally leaves, Yixing still hasn't moved and he’s not sure if his arm has stopped hurting or he just got used to the pain. Yifan keeps his eyes fixed on the hallway and the apartment door, his shoulders slumping down the moment Liao has disappeared.

It takes a while for Yifan to move again and sit down onto the armrest of his couch. Yixing doesn't know what to say, so he decides to keep his mouth shut. The silence that fills the room gets very uncomfortable and Yixing watches as Yifan looks out of the window with a very pensive look on his face, until the man finally speaks up:

"I should let you go."

"Huh?!"

Yixing knows that Yifan hates it when he talks like that - sometimes, he's like an old nagging mom that still tries to parent her grown up son. But instead of demanding Yixing to ask a 'proper question' he runs his fingers through his hair in frustration.

"You should leave before it's way too late for you to get out of this."

The words feel like a hard slap in his face - yes, the thing was never intended to be permanent, but reaching that point of them actually talking about Yixing's departure after everything that's happened comes unexpectedly. Yixing blinks, unable to react for a beat, before he says:

"We've elaborated this already, Yifan. I'm not going anywhere."

"Have you developed some sort of Stockholm Syndrome, Yixing?! I'm fucking up your life, and you'll just let that happen?!"

"That's ridiculous, I haven't developed Stockholm Syndome," Yixing hisses. "You didn't kidnap me and..."

"Oh, I didn't?!" Yifan cuts him off. "So how would you call that? Me, stalking you like a creep for weeks, and then taking you to my place the second I get the chance?!"

Yixing can't find proper words to respond to that, because well... he had felt just like that when Lu Han had taken him here in the beginning. Still, Yifan has always emphasized that Yixing is not being held captive. He was still able to go on with his normal life, and Yifan treated him with nothing but respect and care.

"So what... you want me to just pack and leave? Do you mean you don't care about me anymore?"

He doesn't want to, but he sounds really hurt. And to be completely honest, he feels hurt.

"I care too much!" Yifan exclaims and rubs his forehead with his hand. "I care too fucking much about you! And because of that, I can’t corrupt you with my life any further! Look what it’s done to you, you got fucking shot!”

“Don’t pull that ‘I love you so I’m letting you go’-bullshit on me! It’s not going to work!” Yixing hisses and Yifan flinches.

“For fuck’s sake, Yixing! I mean it!”

Yifan is getting frustrated at Yixing’s stubbornness, but the smaller one won’t have any of Yifan’s behavior. He pushes himself off the counter and walks over to Yifan.

“Do you think I’d be safe if I moved out? Li probably watches every step I’m taking.”

“I could easily hire somebody to protect you and you wouldn’t even notice,” Yifan retorts.

He keeps his eyes closed as Yixing nears him and takes his face into his hands. It’s like looking at Yixing only makes it harder to resist and keep his ground. By now, Yixing has figured out how much power he holds over Yifan, so he works himself in between Yifan’s legs and bumps their noses against each other.

“I want you to protect me though.”

“I didn’t really do a good job at that, just in case you’ve forgotten!” Yifan hisses and looks up to Yixing, to shoot him a vexed look, still avoiding to look directly into his eyes though.

Yixing ignores that remark, because he’s spent the last few days trying to tell Yifan that he is not holding this against him. It wasn’t within Yifan’s control. What happened was because of Li’s sick and raging desire for revenge, not because Yifan is a bad triad leader.

“You said you’re going to end this,” Yixing starts and scoots closer. To prevent from falling over the armrest, Yifan throws his arms around Yixing’s waist. “So end this. And then, it’s going to be fine again. We’ll be okay.”

Yifan doesn’t respond to that, but his bottom lip starts trembling. He’s growing weak against Yixing again, and to make sure he won’t let that thought of sending Yixing away crawl back into his mind again, Yixing adds:

“I’m letting you know that I’m sure now. I don’t want to leave you. And I won’t.”

A pair of glassy eyes finally meet Yixing’s and Yifan says:

“What did I do to find someone like you?”

Yixing dives down and kisses him, and they sink back onto the couch, slowly, because every movement feels like needles in Yixing’s shoulder. Once Yifan’s wrapped himself around Yixing, he gets an answer from the other:

“You literally just walked into Sun Honglei’s bar and there I was serving you a fucking Gin Tonic.”

That comment elicits a chuckle from Yifan and he kisses the crown of Yixing’s head.

“I’m glad I did.”

***

The next few days, Yifan spends a lot of time in his study to make calls and organize what he, his deputy, and also Tao call ‘The Meetup’. Yixing isn’t too sure if the name is supposed to make the whole thing sound less dangerous, but he thinks it’s a stupid and pretentious name for a plain and simple shooting. The second Yifan steps out of the room, or comes home from another meeting, he gets back to the usual procedure of showering Yixing with all the love he can come up with. He won’t talk about any details, won’t tell Yixing anything about the newest developments. All Yixing gets informed about is the date of the evening that’s supposed to end the feud: August 30th, two days before Yixing’s new semester starts.

August 30th is a gloomy day but the forecasted rain won't come crashing down over the town – instead, dark clouds hang low over the city. It’s just a perfect representation of the dark and anxious feeling that’s been bugging Yixing ever since he woke up in the morning next to Yifan who was still asleep. Yifan's disappeared for a few hours in the afternoon, only to return for a quick and simple dinner they spend mostly in silence. It's like neither of them wants to address what's going to happen at the end of this day.

It's going to happen tonight. Somebody will die tonight, somewhere in the outskirts of the city, far away from witnesses. The worst part is that it might be Yifan.

Yixing watches as Yifan puts the dishes away into the cupboards, before he turns around to face Yixing who sits at the counter. He's done a lot of counter-sitting in those last weeks. It's like most of their life takes part in the kitchen, with a tiny part in the living- and bedroom. Yifan supports his hands on the worktop, looking at Yixing. It seems as if he wants to say something, but when he takes a first breath to prepare himself, his phone starts chiming. A message from Lu Han pops up on the screen.

"I need to go now," Yifan announces after he read what Lu Han's written.

Yixing nods, because he doesn't know what to say. Yifan walks over into his study room and comes back with a simple white envelope that he puts onto the counter next to Yixing.

"What is that?" Yixing asks.

"You only read that if I'm not back by tomorrow morning."

"You fucking..."

The words get stuck caused by a lump in Yixing’s throat. That's not right.

"It's just a precaution. I will come back."

Yixing can't even bring himself to look at Yifan and keeps his gaze down. He's spent the whole day in some sort of delirium, like everything that's happened in the last week wasn't real, but he can't push the reality back anymore. The fear has finally found its way through the wall of denials Yixing's kept himself hidden behind and it's just unbearable. He can't even exactly say what it is - it's just too much to comprehend for the time being.

"Yifan," Yixing says when Yifan turns for the door to put on his shoes when Yixing hasn't acknowledged him.

Yifan turns around immediately.

"Yes?"

"Come back to me. Please," he looks up and meets Yifan's gaze who basically has one foot out the door already. "I just... I need you to promise me to come back."

Yifan takes a deep breath, then he leaps forward to pull Yixing into a loving embrace, before he presses his lips onto Yixing's. He's not trying to work his tongue into his mouth, neither is he teasing him, nor are his hands slipping under his clothes like he usually does when he kisses him. He just holds him close and presses himself against the smaller one, as if trying to make him remember how well his body fits against Yixing's. When he withdraws, he says:

"I promise. I'll come back to you."

After a last kiss on Yixing's forehead, Yifan disappears through the door without looking back one more time. And Yixing is left to wait for his return.

Minutes that feel like hours turn into hours that feel like days. Yixing is oddly reminded of his first night in Yifan's apartment when he was extremely frightened by the whole situation, but that has been very different from the fright that keeps him awake now. He eventually passed out on the spare bed in the guest room, because he didn't have any idea about what was about to happen to him. He didn't know anything about Yifan and his life. Now he knows basically everything and he's sure that even if he wanted to, he couldn't go back to sleep, not when Yifan is still out there.

He does crawl under the sheets though, simply because he cannot stand another hopeless hour roaming through the database of Netflix in the living room. So he proceeds to spend another eternity clinging onto the blanket and staring at the ceiling.

He doesn't know what time it is when he hears the beeping of the reader at the door. Yixing shoots up, pulling the blanket away and runs into the hallway where he sees the other man sliding off his shoes. Yifan keeps himself in the dark and Yixing walks over to the light switch, because he wants to see if Yifan is alright or if he's injured.

"Don't, Yixing!" Yifan murmurs and leaps past him into the bathroom.

"Yifan!"

Yixing follows him and freezes in the doorway when he sees Yifan leaning over the sink - the sleeves of his shirt are pulled back and he rubs the skin of his arms and hands frantically. Yixing doesn't need to see more, the red splashes on the white porcelain speak more than a thousand words.

Yifan sees Yixing's reflection in the mirror and pins him down with his eyes.

"Go. Don't - don't look at me!"

"Is that yours?" Yixing asks.

Yifan looks over his shoulder - he's got a bleeding cut under his hairline. He shakes his head quickly, and Yixing feels himself releasing a relieved breath. Then he strides forward and throws his arms around Yifan from behind. For a second, he feels creeped out by the fact that he’s relieved Yifan’s back with him. This should be the last final call to go and get back to what his life was like before meeting him.

He can't though. He won’t.

"It's done, Yixing."

Yifan doesn't need to say more. Yixing doesn't want to know more. He needs no gruesome details, not now, at least. The grip around Yifan's waist gets tighter and he nods. They spend a few moments in silence, before Yixing releases their embrace. Yifan proceeds to clean his arms, while Yixing gets a first aid kit, deciding to patch him up. When Yifan's done getting the blood off his arms and hands, Yixing urges him to sit down onto the toilet lid so he can take a look at him.

Yifan is still somewhat green around the nose, heavy eyebags only making him look worse. The bright lights of the bathroom enhance the contrast between the drying blood on his forehead against his pale skin and Yixing needs to calm himself down with the thought that it may look worse than it actually is. He puts the first aid kit on the cabinet next to them and straddles Yifan's lap. While he uses some tissues and disinfectant to clean the wound, they don't speak a word and Yifan's trembling hands come to a rest on Yixing's hips. The cut under his hairline is indeed not as bad as it looked before and when Yixing's done patching Yifan up, he takes Yifan's face in his hands and takes a long look at him.

"How can you still look at me, knowing what I've done?" Yifan asks.

Yixing doesn't really know the answer, which is, in all honesty, frustrating. But he falls for the same scheme again - he falls for Yifan's eyes that light up when they look at him. He falls for Yifan's face that softens when Yixing is around. He falls for the whole man himself, the one who's been taking care of him like nobody's ever done before.

"I may have developed some very light form of Stockholm Syndrome," Yixing answers and seals their lips.

Yifan lets him and his hands wander around his waist to pull him close whilst Yixing buries his own in the other’s hair. With a last peck, Yifan buries his face in the curve of Yixing's neck and takes a deep breath, as if inhaling Yixing's scent.

"I need sleep," he mutters.

The other nods and grabs Yifan's hand to pull him up and lead him into the bedroom. Yifan follows with shuffling feet. Yixing then helps Yifan undress who doesn't even bother when Yixing takes a long look at his shirt to check for more stains. When he notices dark spots on the sleeves, he decides to throw the shirt away, because he has no idea about how to get blood stains out of cotton. He leaves the room to throw it into the trash in the kitchen, and while he walks back, Yixing thinks that he might have to check online how to get rid of blood on textiles. Just in case. For future references.

When he returns to the bedroom, Yifan still hasn't moved an inch and sits on the brink of the mattress, staring at his hands. He doesn't even notice Yixing until he squats down on his knees and wraps his hands around Yifan’s. It's only then he looks up and Yixing tries a soft smile.

“She said she killed my father,” Yifan whispers, red eyes staring at the other. “... and… my mother… she said she killed my mother, Yixing.”

“Wouldn’t she have shown you some sort of proof for that?” Yixing asks. “She probably said that to provoke you.”

He’s not trying to downplay the weight of that message - in fact, he realizes how the news troubles Yifan’s mind. Yifan knew all along that Li was behind his father’s death. But her having killed his mother, without him even suspecting that all the years, seems to take a toll on his sanity. Yifan lowers his gaze again on their hands, then he says:

“She said she’d kill you next.”

Yixing’s heart stops for a second, and it feels like it’s dropping down onto the floor. He doesn’t try to show it though, and responds:

“Probably just a threat.”

“Threat or not, I couldn’t take the risk, Yixing…” Yifan starts and bites his bottom lip with a pained expression on his face. “I just… I lost it… I _snapped_... and I…”

His hands do some jabbing movements, and he looks up to Yixing again. It’s almost like he’s hoping that Li’s words justified his own actions and the other won’t hate him for it. Yixing realizes why Yifan said he’s not made for a Red Pole job - he’s usually the guy sitting behind a desk and telling people what to do. If he had to personally attack people on a physical level like tonight, he’d probably shoot himself sooner or later. In reality, he isn’t the ruthless triad boss. It’s an act he’s perfected after years of learning from his father.

"You need sleep, Yifan," Yixing says and gently pushes Yifan back into the mattress. “You did what you had to.”

When Yifan faces the ceiling, Yixing kills the lights and slips under the sheets himself. Immediately, Yifan rolls over and huddles into his arms and wraps his body around him, holding on as if letting go of Yixing would mean the end of the world to him. Yixing throws his arms around Yifan's back, one hand holding onto the taller male's waist, and the other grazing over Yifan's scalp in slow and soothing movements. 

“I don’t believe she killed your mother. She’s probably somewhere abroad owning a nice little restaurant or something,” Yixing tries to calm him down, hoping to sound as convincing as possible. “You’re here now. I’m here. We’re fine. That’s what matters,” he then adds and presses a kiss on Yifan’s forehead.

When the taller male's breath becomes steady paced, Yixing realizes that even if he wanted, he'd never be able to go back to what his life was before.

Nothing will ever be the same. Not when Yixing’s decided to love a man like Wu Yifan. Loving Yifan will mean that Yixing won’t only love the part of him that worships the ground Yixing walks on and will do anything to make him happy, he’ll also deal with the part of Yifan that will bring home blood stained clothes and sleepless nights waiting for his return. He will probably get sucked into this life, just like Lihua or Yifan’s mother, and their fates have shown him that it might lead down a very dark road – but he’s willing to try and prove to himself that it will be different for them.

**Author's Note:**

> * In China, you usually have to pay a few months in advance. Most of the time it’s 6 to 12 months, but I guess it also depends on landlords and contracts etc. - anyways. 3 months rent for Yixing here.
> 
> ** Sun Yee On is one of the leading triads in Hong Kong and China.


End file.
